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Baltimore, 1878.
Notes: The Marshes of Glynn
Although Dr. Callaway noted in his preface the importance of this poem,
he did not include it for lack of space. This would seem to indicate
that when he published these "Selected Poems" in 1895,
"The Marshes of Glynn" had not yet achieved its later prominence
as the greatest of Sidney Lanier's poems -- as now seems to be the opinion.
The setting of the poem is the salt marshes surrounding
the coastal city of Brunswick, Georgia, which is in Glynn County -- an area
well deserving of the fame Lanier has given it -- and it was intended
as one installment in a series of "Hymns of the Marshes", of which four poems
were completed.
The text is taken from the 1916 edition of "Poems of Sidney Lanier".
William Hayes Ward wrote of this poem: "How naturally his large faith in God
finds expression in his `Marshes of Glynn'."
Edwin Mims, in his biography of Sidney Lanier, concludes by quoting this poem.
He writes:
"His best poems move to the cadence of a tune. . . . Sometimes, as in
the `Marshes of Glynn' and in the best parts of `Sunrise', there is
a cosmic rhythm that is like unto the rhythmic beating of the heart of God,
of which Poe and Lanier have written eloquently.
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