Sometimes there was a lilt like the singing of a bird,
and sometimes the lyric cry, and yet again the music of the orchestra.
"He has an ear for the distribution of instruments, and this gives him
a desire for the antiphonal, for introducing an answer, or an echo,
or a compensating note," says Mr. Higginson. Sometimes, as in
the "Marshes of Glynn" and in the best parts of "Sunrise", there is
a cosmic rhythm that is like unto the rhythmic beating of the heart of God,
of which Poe and Lanier have written eloquently.
Besides this melody that was temperamental, Lanier had ideas.
He was alive to the problems of his age and to the beauties of nature.
One has only to think of the names of his poems to realize how many themes
occupied his attention. He wrote of religion, social questions, science,
philosophy, nature, love. "My head and my heart are both [so] full of poems,"
he says. "So many great ideas for art are born to me each day,
I am swept into the land of All-delight by their strenuous sweet whirlwind."
"Every leaf that I brush against breeds a poem." "A thousand vital elements
rill through my soul." So he is in no sense a "jingle man".
There is a note of healthy mysticism in his poetry that makes him akin
to Wordsworth and Emerson. A series of poems might be selected
that would entitle him to the praise of being "the friend and aider of those
who would live in the spirit."
With the spiritual endowment of a poet and an unusual sense of melody,
where was he lacking in what makes a great poet? In power of expression.
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