So much for the poet's thoughts; what shall we say of their expression?
In other words, is Lanier the literary artist equal to Lanier the seer?
In order the better to answer this question, let us begin at the beginning, with the elements of style, some of which, however, I pass by as not calling for special comment.
Of Lanier's felicitous choice of words we have already had incidental illustration; but it is desirable, perhaps, to group here a few of his happiest phrases, to show that, as Lowell1 said, he is "a man of genius with a rare gift for the happy word."Notice this speech about the brook:
"And down the hollow from a ferny nook `Lull' sings a little brook!"2and this of the well-bucket:
"The rattling bucket plumps Souse down the well;"3and this of the outburst of a bird:
"Dumb woods, have ye uttered a bird?"4
and the description of a mocking-bird as"Yon trim Shakspere on the tree;"5and of midnight as"Death's and truth's unlocking time."6Moreover, it should be observed that Lanier frequently uses significant compounds, -- a habit acquired, no doubt, from his study of Old English, in which, as in German, such compounds abound.
1 See `Lowell' in `Bibliography'.
2 `From the Flats', ll.23-24; cited by Gates.[Line 24 was changed (to "Bright leaps a living brook!") in later editions.-- A.L., 1998.]
3 `Clover', ll.29-30.
4 `Sunrise', l.57; cited by Gates.
5 `The Mocking-Bird', l.14.
6 `The Crystal', l.1.Other illustrations may be found in the paragraph on figures of speech.
While in the main Lanier's sentence-construction is good, occasionally his sentences are too long, as in `My Springs', `To Bayard Taylor', and `Sunrise', in which we have sentences longer than the opening one in `Paradise Lost', and, what is of more moment, not so well balanced, and hence affording fewer breathing spaces.
That this detracts from clearness and euphony both, every reader will admit.
To come to the figures of speech, one must be struck at once with the delicacy and the vigor of Lanier's imagination.The poet's fancy personifies what at first blush seems to us incapable of personification.
Thus at one time1 he likens men to clover-leaves and the Course-of-things to the browsing ox, which makes way with the clover-heads;while at another he addresses an old red hill of Georgia as"Thou gashed and hairy Lear Whom the divine Cordelia of the year, E'en pitying Spring, will vainly strive to cheer."2Like other Southern poets,3 Lanier sometimes fails to check his imagination, and in consequence leaves his readers "bramble-tangled in a brilliant maze,"as in his description of the stars in `June Dreams'4and in the `Psalm of the West'.5 While I do not like a maze, brilliant though it be and sweet, I must say that I prefer the embarrassment of riches to the embarrassment of poverty.On the whole, however, Lanier's figures strike me as singularly fresh and happy.
In `Sunrise', for example, the poet speaks of the marsh as follows:
"The tide's at full: the marsh with flooded streams Glimmers a limpid labyrinth of dreams;"6and of the heavens reflected in the marsh waters:
"Each winding creek in grave entrancement lies A rhapsody of morning-stars.The skies Shine scant with one forked galaxy, --The marsh brags ten: looped on his breast they lie."7Later, as the ebb-tide flows from marsh to sea, we are parenthetically treated to these two lines:
"Run home, little streams, With your lapfuls of stars and dreams."8Finally, the heaven itself is thus pictured:
"Now in each pettiest personal sphere of dew The summ'd morn shines complete as in the blue Big dew-drop of all heaven;"9beside which must be hung this exquisite picture:
"The dew-drop morn may fall from off the petal of the sky."101 In `Clover'.
2 `Corn', ll.185-187.
3 See on this point the remarks of Professor Trent in his admirable life of `Simms' (Boston, 1892), p.149.
4 `June Dreams', l.21 ff.
5 `Psalm of the West', l.183 ff.
6 `Sunrise', ll.80-81.
7 Ibid., ll.82-85.
8 Ibid., ll.114-115.
9 Ibid., ll.134-136.
10 `The Ship of Earth', l.5.
As to versification, Lanier uses almost all the types of verse -- iambic, trochaic, blank, the sonnet, etc.-- and with about equal skill.
Three features, however, specially characterize his verse:
the careful distribution of vowel-colors and the frequent use of alliteration and of phonetic syzygy,1 by which last is meant a combination or succession of identical or similar consonants, whether initially, medially, or finally, as for instance the succession of M's in Tennyson's"The moan of doves in immemorial elms And murmuring of innumerable bees."All of these phenomena are illustrated in Lanier's `Song of the Chattahoochee', which has often been compared to Tennyson's `The Brook', and which alone proves the author a master in versification.To be sure, Lanier occasionally gives us an improper rhyme, as `thwart: heart',2 etc., but so does every poet.
No doubt, too, his love of music sometimes led him, not "to strain for form effects", but to indulge too much therein, or, in the words of Mr.Stedman, "to essay in language feats that only the gamut can render possible."3 But, as Professor Kent admirably puts it, "Lanier was a poet as well as an artist, and if at times his artistic temperament seemed to eclipse his poetic thought, grant that to the poet mind the very manner of expression may indicate the thought that lies beneath, while to the duller ear the thought must come in completed form."4 Moreover, as we shall see later, this extraordinary musical endowment gave Lanier a unique position among English poets.
1 See `The Science of English Verse', p.306 ff.
2 `In the Foam', ll.6, 8.See, too, Kent's `Study of Lanier's Poems', which gives an exhaustive treatment of Lanier's versification.
3 Stedman's `Poets of America', p.449.
4 `Kent', p.60.
After what has been said the qualities of style may be briefly handled.
