The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-05-25
AN APPRECIATION OF
SIDNEY LANIER
NELLIE BECKHAM


NELLIE BECKHAM
..As the marsh-hen secretly builds
on the watery sod,
Behold i will build me nest ON the
greatness of God,
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.
| will heartily lay me hold on the
greatness of God.
To some souls it is given to at
tain heights of spiritual beauty that
are too high and too far fer the ay-
erage mortal TO do more than
glimpse; but these favored ones
with their divinely bestowed gifts
have a 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 a con-
tinual struggle against adverse cir
| cumstances. This struggle was not so
| much against oyerty 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 a 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, did 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 misap-
| prehension, calm above the zone of
clouds
| When only a 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 1 wish to settle is mere
| ly by what method shall / ascertain
| what l am fit for, as preliminary. to
| ascertaining Gods will with refer
| ence to me; or what my inclinations
are as Introductory to finding out
what my capacities are, that is,
| what / am fit for l cannot bring
| myself to believe that / was intended
| for musician, because it seems so
! small a business in comparison with
| other things which it seems to me
| might do. Question here: What is
| the province of music in the econo-
| my of the world?'''
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 it was here that
| he first discovered that he possessed
decided genius, he for some time
shared the early notion of his par
ents that it was an unworthy pur-.
suit, and he rather suppressed his
taste. He did not know by what in
heritance it had come to him, nor
did he realize how worthy is the art
The breaking out of the war sum-
moned Lanier from books to the
army, and during those years of
strife he played the part OF a true
soldier of the South. Lanier's con-
stitution was delicate: the exposures
and hardships of war developed the
seeds of tuberculosis which he
fought heroically through young
manhood and into middle life, and
to which he finally succumbed