Lanier's poetry appeals rather to meditative minds than to those delighting in pictorial effects. "The Song of the Chattahoochee" is characteristically less picturesque than "The Brook." But in "Sunrise" Lanier presents a picture of remarkable brilliance and fascination, though it does seem "to stand on tiptoe here and there with the desire to express the inexpressible." Oh, what if a sound should be made! To the bend of beauty the bow, or the hold of silence the string! I fear me, I fear me yon dome of diaph anous gleam Will break as a bubble o'erblown in a dream Yon dome of too-tenuous tissues of space and of night. Overweighted with stars, overfreighted with light, Oversated with beauty and silence, will seem But a bubble that broke in a dream, If a bound of degree to this grace be laid, Or a sound or a motion made. But no: it is made: list! Somewheremystery, where? In the leaves? in the air? In my heart? is a motion made: 'Tis a motion of dawn, like a flicker of shade on shade. In the leaves 'tis palpable: low multitudinous stirring Upwinds through the woods; the little ones, softly conferring, Have settled my lord's to be looked for; so; they are still; But the air and my heart and the earth are a-thrill And look where the wild duck sails round the bend of the river And look where a passionate shiver Of the marsh grass in serial shimmers and shades And invisible wings, fast fleeting, fast fleeting, Are beating The dark overhead as my heart beatsand steady and free Is the ebb tide flowing from marsh to sea(Run home, little streams, With your lapfuls of stars and dreams) And a sailor unseen is hoisting a-peak, For list, down the inshore curve of the creek How merrily flutters the sail And lo! in the East! Will the East un veil? The East is unveiled, the East hath con fessed A flush: 'tis dead; 'tis alive; 'tis dead ere the West Was aware of it: nay, 'tis abiding, 'tis unwithdrawn: Have a care, sweet Heaven! 'Tis Dawn! Lanier felt in his innermost heart that How dark, how dark soever the race that must needs be run, I am lit with the sun. With enkindled gaze and calmly unafraid he therefore sings his life song on the very brink of the grave: Oh, never the mast-high run of the seas Of traffic shall hide thee, Never the hell-covered smoke of the fac tories Hide thee, Never the reek of the time's fen-politics Hide thee, And ever my heart through the night shall with knowledge abide thee, And ever by day shall my spirit, as one that hath tried thee, Labor, at leisure, in art-till yonder beside thee My soul shall float, friend Sun, The day being done. 298 Andreas: A LEGEND OF (Vol. III. of the Library of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.) EDITED, WITH CRITICAL NOTES, By W. M. BASKERVILL, Professor of English Language and Literature in the Vanderbilt University. Text and Notes, 78 pages. Paper, 25 Cents. The editor is now preparing a new edition, based on a personal collation of the text with the manuscript, which will shortly be issued, with an introduction, notes, and a complete glossary. Ginn & Co., Publishers, Boston, New York, Chicago. STUDIES IN Early English Anglo-Saxon. Anglo-Saxon Grammar. A brief outline, with list of irregular verbs. Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. A handy, poetical Dictionary, based on Gross- Recommended by Scholars and Teachers as by Far the Best for School Use. A. S. Barnes & Co., Publishers, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. |