26.
*2* `The English Novel', p. 55.
*3* `The English Novel', p. 204.
*4* `In Absence', l. 42.
--
It is but a short way from love to its source, -- God.
And, as Lanier was continually in the atmosphere of the one, so, I believe,
he was ever in the presence of the other; for the poet's "Love means God"
is but another phrasing of the evangelist's "God is love".*1*
Of Lanier's grief over church broils and of his longing for freedom
to worship God according to one's own intuition, we have already learned
from his `Remonstrance'. What he thought of the Christ we learn
from `The Crystal', which closes with this invocation:
"But Thee, but Thee, O sovereign Seer of time,
But Thee, O poets' Poet, Wisdom's Tongue,
But Thee, O man's best Man, O love's best Love,
O perfect life in perfect labor writ,
O all men's Comrade, Servant, King, or Priest, --
What IF or YET, what mole, what flaw, what lapse,
What least defect or shadow of defect,
What rumor, tattled by an enemy,
Of inference loose, what lack of grace
Even in torture's grasp, or sleep's, or death's --
Oh, what amiss may I forgive in Thee,
Jesus, good Paragon, Thou Crystal Christ?"*2*
How tenderly Lanier was touched by the life of our Lord may be seen
in his `Ballad of Trees and the Master', a dramatic presentation of the scene
in Gethsemane and on Calvary.
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