The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-05-26
AN APPRECIATION OF
SIDNEY LANIER
NELLIE BECKHAM

NELLIE BECKHAM
| LAS the marsh-hen secretly builds
on the watery sod.
Behold / will build me nest on the
| greatness of God,
l will fly in the greatness of God, as
the marsh-hen flies,
| In the freedom that fills all the
space 'twixt the marsh and
| the skies;
| BY so many roots as the marsh
grass sends in the sod.
l will heartily lay NE hold on the
greatness OF Cod
! tain heights of spiritual beauty that
| are too high and too far for the av-
erage mortal TO do more than
glimpse; but these favored ones
| with their divinely bestowed gifts
| have message which opens to US
, wide horizons of transcendant beau
ty, If we keep our hearts pure to
/ feel and our vision clear to see.
Such a one of these favored spirits
| was Sidney Lanier. His life, all too
| brief, was. with the exception of
the last few years, given to con-
| tinual struggle against adverse cir
cumstances. This struggle was not so
much against poverty as against un-
congenial surroundings.
At the age of fourteen he entered
Oglethorpe College, and here began
the development of his consciousness
of possessing real genius. One with
this gift has right to know it, just
as others know If they possess tai
lent or versatility. Only once or
twice in his own private note book
when it was needful in sickness and
in loneliness to strengthen her will
and his by testifying his own deep
| est consciousness of power, diu he
, whisper the assurance of his
strength. But he knew it and she
kenw it, and it gave his will a peace
in toll, sunlit peace. notwithstand-
ing sickness and want and m;sap-
prehension, calm above the zone of
clouds.
When only boy eighteen years
old, after having discovered his gen.
ius for music and having debated
the question of his life work he
wrote in his college note book:
1.-The point l wish to settle is mere
ly by what method shall / ascertain
what l am fit for. as preliminary to
! ascertaining Gods will with refer
i ence to me: or what my inclinations
are as Introductory to finding out
! what my capacities are, that is,
what l am fit for. I cannot bring
myself to believe that l was intended
| for musician, because it seems so
small business in comparison with
other things which II seems to me
, might do. Question here: What is
. the province OF music in the econo-
my of the wor1d?'"
His earliest passion was for music,
and as child he learned to play
, almost without instruction on every
instrument he could find. He de-
voted himself TO the flute in defer
ence to his father who feared for
him the powerful fascination of the
! violin. In after years more than
! one listener remarked the strange
violin effects which he conquered
| from the flute. His devotion TO mus
ic rather alarmed than pleased his
friends, and, while il was here that
he first discovered that he possessed
decided genius. he for some time
ents that it was an unworthy pur-
suit, and he rather suppressed his
taste. He did not know by what in
heritance 1t had come to him, nor
did he realize how worthy is the art.
The breaking out OF the war sum-
moned Lanier from books 10 the
army, and during those years of
strife he played the part OF true
soldier OF the South. Lanier's con-
stitution was delicate; the exposures
and hardships CT war developed the
seeds OF tuberculosis, which he
fought heroically through young
manhood and into middle life. and
to which he finally succunbed.