第4章 A Brief Sketch of Lanier's Life(1842-1881)(3)

After teaching three years in West Virginia, he has started a fruit farm at Tryon, N.C., where he hopes to build up his health.

The third son, Henry Wysham, was prevented from entering the Johns Hopkins by a partial failure of sight, and for three years has devoted himself to railroad engineering in Baltimore and in Jamaica.The youngest, Robert Sampson, only fourteen, is at Tryon, N.C., with his mother.

That interest in Lanier's life and work did not cease with his death, there is abundant evidence.On October 22, 1881, a memorial meeting was held by the Faculty and students of the Johns Hopkins University, at which addresses1 were made by President Gilman and Professor Wm.Hand Browne, of the University, and by the Rev.Dr.William Kirkus, of Baltimore, and a letter1 was read from the poet-critic, Edmund C.Stedman, of New York.In 1883 `The English Novel' was published, and in 1884 the `Poems', edited by his wife, with the excellent `Memorial'

by Dr.Wm.Hayes Ward, who declared that he thought Lanier would "take his final rank with the first princes of American song."2Numerous reviews of his life and works were published, notably those by Mr.Wm.R.Thayer, Dr.Merrill E.Gates, Professor Charles W.Kent, and by the London `Spectator'.On February 3, 1888, the Johns Hopkins University held another memorial meeting in Baltimore, attended by many from other cities."A bust of the poet, in bronze (modelled by Ephraim Keyser, sculptor, in the last period of Lanier's life, at the suggestion of Mr.J.R.Tait), was presented to the University by his kinsman, Charles Lanier, Esq., of New York.It was also announced that a citizen of Baltimore had offered a pedestal, to be cut in Georgia marble from a design by Mr.J.B.N.Wyatt.On a temporary pedestal hung the flute of Lanier, which had so often been his solace, and a roll of his manuscript music.The bust was crowned with a wreath of laurel; the words of Lanier, `The Time needs Heart', were woven into the strings of a floral lyre; and other flowers, likewise brought by personal friends, were grouped around the pedestal.

As a memento a card, designed by Mrs.Henry Whitman, of Boston, was given to those who were present.Upon its face was a wreath, with Lanier's name and the date, and the motto -- `Aspiro dum Exspiro';upon the reverse appeared the closing lines of the Hymn of the Sun, taken from the poet's `Hymns of the Marshes' -- and beneath, a flute with ivy twined about it."3 The exercises, which were interspersed with music, were as follows:

addresses by President Gilman of the Hopkins and President Gates of Rutgers (now of Amherst); selections from Lanier's poetry, read by Miss Susan Hayes Ward, of Newark, N.J.; a paper on Lanier's `Science of English Verse', by Professor A.H.Tolman, of Ripon College, Wis.

(now of the University of Chicago); poetic tributes by Mrs.Lawrence Turnbull, Miss Edith M.Thomas, and Messrs.James Cummings, Richard E.Burton, and John B.Tabb; and letters from Messrs.Richard W.Gilder, Edmund C.Stedman, and James Russell Lowell -- all of which may be found in President Gilman's dainty `Memorial of Sidney Lanier'.Again, a replica of the above-mentioned bust, the gift also of Mr.Charles Lanier, was unveiled at the poet's birthplace, Macon, Ga., on October 17, 1890;on which occasion tender tributes4 were again poured forth in prose and verse, by Messrs.W.B.Hill, Hugh V.Washington, Charles Lanier, Clifford Lanier, Wm.Hand Browne, Charles G.D.Roberts, John B.Tabb, H.S.Edwards, Wm.H.Hayne, Charles W.Hubner, Joel Chandler Harris, Charles Dudley Warner, and Daniel C.Gilman.

But more significant than these demonstrations, perhaps, is the steadily growing study devoted to Lanier's works.

Mr.Higginson5 tells us, for instance, that, when he wrote his tribute in 1887, Lanier's `Science of English Verse' had been put upon the list of Harvard books to be kept only a fortnight, and that, according to the librarian, it was out "literally all the time."Moreover, it would not be difficult to cite various poems that have been more or less modeled upon Lanier's; it is sufficient, perhaps, to point out that the marsh, a theme almost unknown to poetry before Lanier immortalized it, is not infrequently the subject of poetic treatment now, as in the works of Charles G.D.Roberts,6 Clinton Scollard,7and Maurice Thompson.8 It is noteworthy, too, that many of the younger poets of the day, both in Canada and the United States, have sung Lanier's praise.A complete list is given in the `Bibliography'.

Still further, a devoted admirer, Mrs.Lawrence Turnbull, of Baltimore, in `The Catholic Man', has in the person of Paul, the poet, given us an imaginative study of the character of Mr.Lanier.

Finally, only a few months ago the Chautauquans of the class of 1898determined to call themselves "The Laniers", in honor of the poet and his brother.

1 See the `Bibliography'.

2 `Memorial', p.xi.

3 Gilman's `A Memorial of Sidney Lanier', pp.5-6.

4 Published in `The Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution' of October 19, 1890.

5 See `The Chautauquan', as cited in the `Bibliography'.

6 See recent files of `The Independent' (New York).

7 See his `Pictures in Song' (New York, 1884), pp.45-49.

8 See his `Songs of Fair Weather' (Boston, 1883), pp.27-28.