Select Poems of Sidney Lanier Part 9

57. See 'Introduction', p. l [Part V].

125. In her introductory note to 'Corn' Mrs. Lanier thus localizes the poem: "His 'fieldward-faring eyes took harvest' 'among the stately corn-ranks,'

in a portion of middle Georgia sixty miles to the north of Macon.

It is a high tract of country from which one looks across the lower reaches to the distant Blue Ridge Mountains, whose wholesome breath, all un.o.bstructed, 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 circ.u.mstances for man's life need not be sought.'"

140. See 'Jason' in any Dictionary of Mythology.*

-- * Gayley's 'The Cla.s.sic 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 pa.s.sion-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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d and G.o.d'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 G.o.d 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. x.x.xv [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' and 'June Dreams in January'.

It will be interesting to compare 'My Springs' with other poems on the eyes.

Among the most noteworthy* may be cited Shakespeare's

"And those eyes, the break of day, Lights that do mislead the morn;"

Lodge's

"Her eyes are sapphires set in snow, Resembling heaven by every wink; The G.o.ds do fear whenas they glow, And I do tremble when I think, Heigh ho, would she were mine!"

Jonson's

"Drink to me only with thine eyes And I will pledge with mine," etc.;

Herrick's

"Sweet, be not proud of those two eyes Which starlike sparkle in their skies;"

Thomas Stanley's

"Oh turn away those cruel eyes, The stars of my undoing; Or death in such a bright disguise May tempt a second wooing;"

Byron's

"She walks in beauty, like the night, Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies;"

H. Coleridge's

"She is not fair to outward view, As many maidens be; Her loveliness I never knew Until she smiled on me.

O then I saw her eye was bright, A well of love, a spring of light.

"But now her looks are coy and cold, To mine they ne'er reply, And yet I cease not to behold The love-light in her eye: Her very frowns are fairer far Than smiles of other maidens are;"