* * * * *
"'I'll south with the sun and keep my clime;
My wing is king of the summer-time;
My breast to the sun his torch shall hold;
And I'll call down through the green and gold,
_Time, take thy scythe, reap bliss for me,
Bestir thee under the orange-tree_.'"
The music of the bird, the sparkle of the sunlight, and the pure joy of
living are in this poem, which is one of Lanier's finest lyrical outbursts.
_The Song of the Chattahoochee_ is another of his great successes in pure
melody. The rhymes, the rhythm, the alliteration beautifully express the
flowing of the river.
His noblest and most characteristic poem, however, is _The Marshes of
Glynn_. It seems to breathe the very spirit of the broad open marshes and
to interpret their meaning to the heart of man, while the long, sweeping,
melodious lines of the verse convey a rich volume of music, of which he was
at times a wonderful master.
"Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and the terminal sea?
Somehow my soul seems suddenly free
From the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin,
By the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn.
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