" Mr. F. F. Browne,
Editor of `The Dial' (Chicago), compares the two poets in another aspect:
"`The Symphony' of Lanier may recall some parts of `Maud';
but the younger poet's treatment is as much his own
as the elder's is his own. The comparison of Lanier with Tennyson will,
indeed, only deepen the impression of his originality,
which is his most striking quality. It may be doubted
if any English poet of our time, except Tennyson, has cast his work
in an ampler mould, or wrought with more of freedom, or stamped his product
with the impress of a stronger personality. His thought, his stand-point,
his expression, his form, his treatment, are his alone; and through them all
he justifies his right to the title of poet."
--
Poems
Life and Song
If life were caught by a clarionet, [1]
And a wild heart, throbbing in the reed,
Should thrill its joy and trill its fret,
And utter its heart in every deed,
Then would this breathing clarionet
Type what the poet fain would be;
For none o' the singers ever yet
Has wholly lived his minstrelsy,
Or clearly sung his true, true thought,
Or utterly bodied forth his life,
Or out of life and song has wrought [11]
The perfect one of man and wife;
Or lived and sung, that Life and Song
Might each express the other's all,
Careless if life or art were long
Since both were one, to stand or fall:
So that the wonder struck the crowd,
Who shouted it about the land:
`His song was only living aloud,
His work, a singing with his hand!'
____
1868.
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