Poems of Sidney Lanier

by Sidney Lanier

The poems of Sidney Lanier continue to find an admiring audience more than a century after his death. Though his poetry evokes both the landscape and the romantic spirit of the Old South, his concerns for the natural world, spirituality, and the character of society offer universal appeal. This anthology includes Lanier's best-known and most celebrated works--"Sunrise," "The Song of the Chattahoochee," "A Song of Love," and "The Marshes of Glynn." These and the other poems presented in the collection reveal Lanier's interest in the welfare and preservation of nature and society and his opposition to southern industrialization. The memorial by William Hayes Ward and the afterword by John Hollander illumine Lanier's ideas for a new generation, offering glimpses into Lanier's life and introducing us to the soldier, lawyer, teacher, lecturer, talented musician, and amazingly gifted writer who captured the South's landscape and character through unforgettable poetry.

Genres: Poetry, American, Nature

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1897

About the author

Sidney Clopton Lanier was an American musician, poet and author. As a poet he sometimes, though not exclusively, used dialects. Many of his poems are written in heightened, but often archaic, American English. He became a flutist and sold poems to publications. He eventually became a professor of literature at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and is known for his adaptation of musical meter to poetry. Many schools, other structures and two lakes are named for him.

Reviews

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lanier offers familiar romantic views of God, nature, art, society. His verse is notable for diffuse ethereal imagery more than ideas. The dialect poems are fun.

[Charles van Buren · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great Southern poets

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This review is from: The Poems of Sidney Lanier (Kindle Edition)

I was taught in more than one class in more than one school, that the three great Southern poets are, in order, Edgar Allan Poe, Sidney Lanier, and Henry Timrod. I have not read or heard anything in the past 50 years to change my opinion. In fact, one of my favorite books is Lanier's retelling of the King Arthur stories. Unlike my experience with Henry Timrod, I discovered Lanier on my own by simply browsing through the stacks in our high school library. Lanier's poetry is excellent. Well it is unless you consider Richard Brautigan to be great literature, in which case I think we speak different languages. I for one have never sampled illegal drugs or regularly over indulged in alcohol.

[Gracielou · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Out of the hills of Habersham, down through the valleys of Hall" are words that are inscribed upon the brain of every school child in the state of Georgia. Sidney Lanier might not be Gerogia's best poet (I prefer Byron Herbert Reece) but he is certainly our most famous.

[Tiffany]

Another one for my independent study.

[Will · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Street-Cries

II.
The Ship of Earth

Thou ship of Earth, with Death, and Birth, and Life, and Sex aboard,
And fires of Desires burning hotly in the hold,
I fear thee, O! I fear thee, for I hear the tongue and sword
At battle on the deck, and the wild mutineers are bold!

The dewdrop morn may fall from off the petal of the sky,
But all the deck is wet with blood and stains the crystal red.
A pilot, God, a pilot! for the helm is left awry,
And the best sailors in the ship lie there among the dead!

Prattville, Alabama, 1868"

[Duffy Pratt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first heard of Lanier when reading a Sci Fi book called Macroscope by Piers Anthony. It has a few references and quotes to Lanier's poem The Symphony. Turns out, that's either his best or his second best poem. The Marshes of Glynn, while quite different, is either as good or better.

The rest range from being very good to meh, and I think mostly on the meh side. Lanier has the ability to be beautifully lyrical. And the imagery in much of his work is lovely. He also has a tendency to be extremely sentimental, and to be almost overbearingly and uncritically Christian. So it's a decided mix, but on balance I think he's worth reading, and definitely worth reading his greatest hits.