"
This poem, original and beautiful, both in subject and form, expresses
Lanier's strong faith in God. He says:--
"As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod,
Behold, I will build me a nest on the greatness of God:
I will fly in the greatness of God as the marsh-hen flies
In the freedom that fills all the space 'twixt the marsh and the skies:
By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod
I will heartily lay me a-hold of the greatness of God."
No Puritan could show a truer faith than Lanier's, nor a faith more
poetically and devoutly expressed. In his _Sunrise_ he attains at times the
beauty of _The Marshes of Glynn_, and voices in some of the lines a
veritable rhapsody of faith. Yet for sustained elevation of feeling and for
unbroken musical harmonies, _Sunrise_ cannot equal _The Marshes of Glynn_,
which alone would suffice to keep Lanier's name on the scroll of the
greater American poets.
General Characteristics.--Lanier is an ambitious poet. He attempts to voice
the unutterable, to feel the intangible, to describe the indescribable, and
to clothe this ecstasy in language that will be a harmonious accompaniment
to the thought.
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