Select Poems of Sidney Lanier [Sidney Lanier: American (Georgia) Poet, Musician, etc.; 1842-1881.] Edited by Morgan Callaway [American (Southern U.S.) Scholar; 1862-1936.]
[Note on text: Italicized words are capitalised. Lines longer than 78 characters are broken and the continuation is indented two spaces. Some obvious errors may have been corrected. The "Notes" section has been abolished, and the notes themselves appear with the poems, instead of in a separate section.]
Select Poems of Sidney Lanier
Edited With an Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography By Morgan Callaway, Jr., Ph.D. Associate Professor of English Philology in the University of Texas, Formerly Fellow of the Johns Hopkins University; Author of "The Absolute Participle in Anglo-Saxon"
[Amended to include "The Marshes of Glynn"]
To My Father
Preface
This edition of the 'Select Poems of Sidney Lanier' is issued in the hope of making his poetry known to wider circles than hitherto, especially among the students of our high-schools and colleges. To these as to older people, the poems will, it is believed, prove an inspiration from the stand-point both of literature and of life.
The biographical section of the Introduction rests in the main upon Dr. Ward's admirable 'Memorial' prefixed to the 'Poems of Sidney Lanier' edited by his wife, though a few additional facts have been gleaned here and there. For most* of the Bibliography down to 1888 I am indebted to my Hopkins comrade, Dr. Richard E. Burton, now of Hartford, Conn., who compiled one for the 'Memorial of Sidney Lanier', published by President Gilman, of the Johns Hopkins University, in 1888. Obligations to other publications about Lanier are in every instance acknowledged in the appropriate place.
-- * I say 'most of the Bibliography down to 1888', because Dr. Burton's different purpose led him to exclude items that could not be omitted in a Bibliography that, like mine, tries to be complete. --
As to the selections made, I wished to include 'The Marshes of Glynn' and yet not to exclude 'Sunrise'. But both could not be put in, and I finally gave the preference to 'Sunrise', chiefly on the ground of its being Lanier's latest complete poem.* I believe all will admit that the poems selected fairly exemplify the genius of the poet. The poems are arranged, not as in the complete edition, but in their chronological order, the only proper one, I think, for a text-book. Of course, they are all given complete.
-- * Later opinion generally agrees that "The Marshes of Glynn" is Lanier's greatest poem, and as this edition has no limitations of space, it would be inappropriate to exclude it. Therefore it has been inserted more or less in chronological order (in accordance with Callaway's plan), with some comments. -- Alan Light, 1998. --
In the Notes I have made rather copious quotations from poems familiar to English scholars, because I hope that this book will go into the hands of many to whom they are not familiar, and to whom the original texts are not easily accessible. And yet, if they at all attain their end, the Notes must lead one to wish to know more of English poetry, of which Lanier's is but a part.
Among the friends that have helped me by counsel or otherwise I gratefully name Mr. Clifford Lanier, brother of the poet; Professor Wm. Hand Browne, of the Johns Hopkins University; Dr. Charles H. Ross, of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute; and my colleagues in the School of English in the University of Texas, Mr. L. R. Hamberlin and Professor Leslie Waggener. Chief-justice Logan E. Bleckley, of Georgia, a man of letters as well as of law, very kindly put at my use his correspondence with the poet, the original draft of 'Corn', and his criticisms upon the same. My chief indebtedness, however, is to Mrs. Sidney Lanier, who has been most generous with her time and her husband's papers.
