The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-02-25

only to be read but set to music. In
the following lines from the Song
of the Chattahoochee," notice the
music and rhythm:
Out of the hills of Habersham,
Down the valleys of Hall,
hurry amain to reach the plain,
Run the rapid and leap the fall
Split at the rock and together again,
Accept my bed, or narrow, or wide,
And flee from folly on every side
With lovers pain to attain the plain
Far from the hills of Habersham,
Far from the valleys Of Hall.
All down the hills of Habersham,
All through the valleys of Hall,
The rushes cried, abide, abide,
The wilful waterweeds held me thralI,
The having laurel turned my tide,
The ferns and the fondling grass said,
"Stay."
The dewberry dipped for to work de-
lay,
And the little reeds cried, "Abide,
abide,
Here in the hills of Habersham,
Here in the valleys of Hall"
But oh, not the hills of Habersham,
And oh, not the valleys of Hall
Avail: | am fain for to water the
plain.
Downward the voices of Duty call
! Downward to toll and be mixed with
the main.
The dry fields burn, and the mills are
to turn,
And myriad flowers mortally yearn,
And the lordly main from beyond the
plain
~ IL. r L.
Calls through the valleys of Hall.
These gifts and powers, then-tech-
nical mastery, original thought, and
spiritual perception and fervor-are
to be recognized in his best poems. In
the shorter lyrics these characteristic
| qualities shine out What knightly
idevotion to womanhood is expressed
in "My Springs" as high a strain as
was ever sung to wife:
In the heart of the Hills of Life, I
/ know
| Two springs that with unbroken flow
/ Forever pour their lucent streams
/ Into my souls far Lake of Dreams,
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 passion pure
And gray and wise and honor-sure;
Soft as dying violet-breath,
Yet calmly unafraid of death;
Thronged like two dove-cotes of gray
doves,
With wife's and mothers and poor
folks loves,
And home-loves and high glory-loves
And science-loves and story-loves,
And loves for all that God and man,
In art or nature make and plan,
And lady loves for spidery laces,
And 'broideries and supple grace,
And diamonds and the whole sweet
/ round
Of Titles that large life compound.
And loves for God and Gods bare
truth,
And loves for Magdalene and Ruth;
Dear eyes, clear eyes, and rare COM
i plete,
Being heavenly sweet, and earthly
sweet,
| marvel that God made you mine
For when he frowns, it's then We
shine
Lanier's attitude towards nature
was that of passionate lover; a pan
thiest who saw God in everything.
The elimination of his art and
thought and spiritual force is found
in the "Hymn of the Marshes" Listen
to the following lines from "The
Marshes of Glynn," and you will see
the reverence:
Glooms of live oaks, beautifully braid
ed and woven,
In intricate shades of the vines that
myriad-cloven,
Clamor to the forks of the multiform
boughs;
Emerald twilights,
Virginia. skylights;
Wrought of the leaves to lure to the
whisper of vows,
As lovers pace timidly down the green
colonnades
Of the dim sweet woods; of the dear
H dark woods,
OF the heavenly woods and glades,
That run to the marginal sand-beach
within
The wide-sea marshes of Glynn.
As the marsh-hen secretly builds OH
the watery sod
Behold, | will build me a nest on the
greatness of God;
l will fly in the greatness of God as
4 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 a-hold on the
greatness of God.
On, ike to the greatness of God is the
greatness within
The range of the marshes. the liberal
marshes of Glynn.
Thus we see that Lanier's poetry
was not confined to one narrow poem,
but consists of many kinds.
M. E., 10.
OFFICIAL. OPnFR