to return home where he practised law with his father till 1873. Then deciding to devote himself to music and poetry, he went to Baltimore where he was engaged as first flute in the Peabody Symphony Concerts and in 1879 as lecturer on English Literature in Johns Hopkins University. His dread disease never relaxed and he was often obliged to quit work and go to Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and Pennsylvania in search of strength. His death occurred at Lynn, Polk County, North Carolina, on his last quest for strength and life with which to continue the work he so much loved. His "Science of English Verse" is said to be a new and valuable addition to the study of poetry. His poems belong to the new order of thought and life. His "TigerLilies" is a prose-poem, written in three weeks just after the war and laid in the mountains of Tennessee and on the eastern shore of Virginia where he was stationed. Beauty is holiness, and holiness is beauty," was his favorite remark on the subject of Art. His work and influence are growing in importance in the regard of students. In 1876 he was invited to write the poem for the Centennial Exposition; and the "Meditation of Columbia," composed with the musical expression always in mind,—and so too it should be read,-was the grand Ode that graced the opening day at Philadelphia. See under Waitman Barbe. WORKS. POEMS: Edited by his wife, Mary Day Lanier, with a Memorial by William Hayes Ward. Tiger Lilies, [novel]. Florida: its Scenery, Climate, and History. English Novel and Principles of Its Development. Science of English Verse. Boy's Froissart. Boy's King Arthur. Boy's Mabinogion. Boy's Percy. SONG OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE, Out of the hills of Habersham, I hurry amain to reach the plain, All down the hills of Habersham, The ferns and the fondling grass said Stay, High o'er the hills of Habersham, The hickory told me manifold Fair tales of shade, the poplar tall Wrought me her shadowy self to hold, The chestnut, the oak, the walnut, the pine, Deep shades of the hills of Habersham, These glades in the valleys of Hall. And oft in the hills of Habersham, And oft in the valleys of Hall, The white quartz shone, and the smooth brook-stone And many a luminous jewel lone, * By permission of Mrs. Lanier, and Charles Scribner's Sons, N. Y. 1877. -Crystals clear or a-cloud with mist, Ruby, garnet, and amethyst Made lures with the lights of streaming stone In the clefts of the hills of Habersham, In the beds of the valleys of Hall. But oh, not the hills of Habersham, Avail: I am fain for to water the plain, Downward, to toil and be mixed with the main, And the lordly main from beyond the plain Calls through the valleys of Hall. WHAT IS MUSIC? Music is Love in search of a word. THE TIDE RISING IN THE MARSHES. (From The Marshes of Glynn.*) Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-withholding and free Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the sea! As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod, In the freedom that fills all the space 'twixt the marsh and the skies: * By permission of Mrs. Lanier, and Charles Scribner's Sons, N. Y. And the sea lends large, as the marsh: and lo, out of his plenty, the sea Pours fast: full soon the time of the flood-tide must be: Look how the grace of the sea doth go About and about through the intricate channels that flow Everywhere, Till his waters have flooded the uttermost creeks and the low-lying lanes, That like as with rosy and silvery essences flow Farewell, my lord Sun! The creeks overflow: a thousand rivulets run Twixt the roots of the sod; the blades of the marsh-grass stir; Passeth, and all is still; and the currents cease to run; And the sea and the marsh are one. How still the plains of the waters be! The tide is in his ecstasy. The tide is at his highest height: And it is night. And now from the Vast of the Lord will the waters of sleep Roll in on the souls of men, But who will reveal to our waking ken The forms that swim and the shapes that creep Under the waters of sleep? And I would I could know what swimmeth below when the tide comes in On the length and the breadth of the marvellous marshes of Glynn. 1878. JAMES LANE ALLEN. JAMES LANE ALLEN is one of the best and most successful of the living writers of the South. He is a Kentuckian, and his sketches and stories have so far all dealt with life in his native State. Life in the Blue Grass. White Cowl. Flute and Violin, and other stories. WORKS. John Gray. Sister Dolorosa. A Kentucky Cardinal (1895]. SPORTS OF A KENTUCKY SCHOOL IN 1795. (From John Gray, a Kentucky Tale of the Olden Time.*) A strange mixture of human life there was in Gray's school. There were the native little Kentuckians, born in the wilderness-the first wild, hardy generation of new people; and there were the little folk from Virginia, from Tennessee, from North Carolina, and from Pennsylvania and other sources, huddled together, some rude, some gentle, and starting out now to be formed into the men and women of the Kentucky that was to be. They had their strange, sad, heroic games and pastimes, those primitive children under his guidance. Two little girls would be driving the cows home about dusk; three little boys would play Indian and capture them and carry them off; the husbands of the little girls would form a party to the rescue; the prisoners would drop pieces of their dresses along the way; and then at a certain point of the woods-it being the dead of night now, and the little girls being bound to a tree, and the Indians having fallen asleep beside their smouldering camp-fires the rescuers would rush in, and there would be whoops and shrieks, and the taking of scalps, and a happy return. Or, some settlement would be shut up in a fort besieged. Days would pass. The only water was a spring outside the walls, and around this the enemy skulked in the corn and grass. But the warriors must not perish of thirst. So, with a prayer, a tear, a final embrace, the little women marched out By permission of J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia. |