Select Poems of Sidney Lanier [22]
to the distant Blue Ridge Mountains, whose wholesome breath, all unobstructed, here blends with the woods-odors of the beech, the hickory, and the muscadine: a part of a range recalled elsewhere by Mr. Lanier as `that ample stretch of generous soil, where the Appalachian ruggednesses calm themselves into pleasant hills before dying quite away into the sea-board levels' -- where `a man can find such temperances of heaven and earth -- enough of struggle with nature to draw out manhood, with enough of bounty to sanction the struggle -- that a more exquisite co-adaptation of all blessed circumstances for man's life need not be sought.'"
140. See `Jason' in any Dictionary of Mythology.*
-- * Gayley's `The Classic Myths in English Literature' (Boston, Ginn & Co.) is an excellent book. --
157. `Dives': See Appendix to Webster's `International Dictionary'.
168. `Future Sale' -- sale for future delivery.
185-6. See Shakespeare's `King Lear'.
My Springs
In the heart of the Hills of Life, I know [1] Two springs that with unbroken flow Forever pour their lucent streams Into my soul's far Lake of Dreams.
Not larger than two eyes, they lie Beneath the many-changing sky And mirror all of life and time, -- Serene and dainty pantomime.
Shot through with lights of stars and dawns, And shadowed sweet by ferns and fawns, -- Thus heaven and earth together vie [11] Their shining depths to sanctify.
Always when the large Form of Love Is hid by storms that rage above, I gaze in my two springs and see Love in his very verity.
Always when Faith with stifling stress Of grief hath died in bitterness, I gaze in my two springs and see A Faith that smiles immortally.
Always when Charity and Hope, [21] In darkness bounden, feebly grope, I gaze in my two springs and see A Light that sets my captives free.
Always, when Art on perverse wing Flies where I cannot hear him sing, I gaze in my two springs and see A charm that brings him back to me.
When Labor faints, and Glory fails, And coy Reward in sighs exhales, I gaze in my two springs and see [31] Attainment full and heavenly.
O Love, O Wife, thine eyes are they, -- My springs from out whose shining gray Issue the sweet celestial streams That feed my life's bright Lake of Dreams.
Oval and large and passion-pure And gray and wise and honor-sure; Soft as a dying violet-breath Yet calmly unafraid of death;
Thronged, like two dove-cotes of gray doves, [41] With wife's and mother's and poor-folk's loves, And home-loves and high glory-loves And science-loves and story-loves,
And loves for all that God and man In art and nature make or plan, And lady-loves for spidery lace And broideries and supple grace
And diamonds and the whole sweet round Of littles that large life compound, And loves for God and God's bare truth, [51] And loves for Magdalen and Ruth,
Dear eyes, dear eyes and rare complete -- Being heavenly-sweet and earthly-sweet, -- I marvel that God made you mine, For when He frowns, 'tis then ye shine!
____ Baltimore, 1874.
Notes: My Springs
For my appreciation of this tribute to the poet's wife see `Introduction', p. xxxv [Part III]. Mr. Lanier's estimate is given in a letter of March, 1874, quoted in Mrs. Lanier's introductory note: "Of course, since I have written it to print I cannot make it such as _I_ desire in artistic design: for the forms of to-day require a certain trim smugness and clean-shaven propriety in the face and dress of a poem, and I must win a hearing by conforming in some degree to these tyrannies, with a view to overturning them in the future. Written so, it is not nearly so beautiful as I would have it; and I therefore have another still in my heart, which I will some day write for myself."
Other tributes to his wife are: `In Absence', `Acknowledgment', `Laus Mariae', `Special Pleading', `Evening Song', `Thou and I', `One in Two', and `Two in One'; while she is referred to in `The Hard Times in Elfland'
140. See `Jason' in any Dictionary of Mythology.*
-- * Gayley's `The Classic Myths in English Literature' (Boston, Ginn & Co.) is an excellent book. --
157. `Dives': See Appendix to Webster's `International Dictionary'.
168. `Future Sale' -- sale for future delivery.
185-6. See Shakespeare's `King Lear'.
My Springs
In the heart of the Hills of Life, I know [1] Two springs that with unbroken flow Forever pour their lucent streams Into my soul's far Lake of Dreams.
Not larger than two eyes, they lie Beneath the many-changing sky And mirror all of life and time, -- Serene and dainty pantomime.
Shot through with lights of stars and dawns, And shadowed sweet by ferns and fawns, -- Thus heaven and earth together vie [11] Their shining depths to sanctify.
Always when the large Form of Love Is hid by storms that rage above, I gaze in my two springs and see Love in his very verity.
Always when Faith with stifling stress Of grief hath died in bitterness, I gaze in my two springs and see A Faith that smiles immortally.
Always when Charity and Hope, [21] In darkness bounden, feebly grope, I gaze in my two springs and see A Light that sets my captives free.
Always, when Art on perverse wing Flies where I cannot hear him sing, I gaze in my two springs and see A charm that brings him back to me.
When Labor faints, and Glory fails, And coy Reward in sighs exhales, I gaze in my two springs and see [31] Attainment full and heavenly.
O Love, O Wife, thine eyes are they, -- My springs from out whose shining gray Issue the sweet celestial streams That feed my life's bright Lake of Dreams.
Oval and large and passion-pure And gray and wise and honor-sure; Soft as a dying violet-breath Yet calmly unafraid of death;
Thronged, like two dove-cotes of gray doves, [41] With wife's and mother's and poor-folk's loves, And home-loves and high glory-loves And science-loves and story-loves,
And loves for all that God and man In art and nature make or plan, And lady-loves for spidery lace And broideries and supple grace
And diamonds and the whole sweet round Of littles that large life compound, And loves for God and God's bare truth, [51] And loves for Magdalen and Ruth,
Dear eyes, dear eyes and rare complete -- Being heavenly-sweet and earthly-sweet, -- I marvel that God made you mine, For when He frowns, 'tis then ye shine!
____ Baltimore, 1874.
Notes: My Springs
For my appreciation of this tribute to the poet's wife see `Introduction', p. xxxv [Part III]. Mr. Lanier's estimate is given in a letter of March, 1874, quoted in Mrs. Lanier's introductory note: "Of course, since I have written it to print I cannot make it such as _I_ desire in artistic design: for the forms of to-day require a certain trim smugness and clean-shaven propriety in the face and dress of a poem, and I must win a hearing by conforming in some degree to these tyrannies, with a view to overturning them in the future. Written so, it is not nearly so beautiful as I would have it; and I therefore have another still in my heart, which I will some day write for myself."
Other tributes to his wife are: `In Absence', `Acknowledgment', `Laus Mariae', `Special Pleading', `Evening Song', `Thou and I', `One in Two', and `Two in One'; while she is referred to in `The Hard Times in Elfland'