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.”
And later continues:
“Indeed, if one had to rely upon one poem to keep alive the fame of Lanier, he could single out ‘The Marshes of Glynn’ with assurance that there is something so individual and original about it, and that, at the same time, there is such a roll and range of verse in it, that it will surely live not only in American poetry but in English. Here the imagination has taken the place of fancy, the effort to do great things ends in victory, and the melody of the poem corresponds to the exalted thought. It has all the strong points of ‘Sunrise’, with but few of its limitations. There is something of Whitman’s virile imagination and Emerson’s high spirituality combined with the haunting melody of Poe’s best work. Written in 1878, when Lanier was in the full exercise of all his powers, it is the best expression of his genius and one of the few great American poems.
“The background of the poem — as of ‘Sunrise’ — is the forest, the coast and the marshes near Brunswick, Georgia. Early in life Lanier had been thrilled by this wonderful natural scenery, and later visits had the more powerfully impressed his imagination. He is the poet of the marshes as surely as Bryant is of the forests, or Wordsworth of the mountains.
“The poet represents himself as having spent the day in the forest and coming at sunset into full view of the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes. The glooms of the live-oaks and the emerald twilights of the ‘dim sweet woods, of the dear dark woods,’ have been as a refuge from the riotous noon-day sun. More than that, in the wildwood privacies and closets of lone desire he has known the passionate pleasure of prayer and the joy of elevated thought. His spirit is grown to a lordly great compass within, — he is ready for what Wordsworth calls a ‘god-like hour’.”
Mr. Callaway also treats the poem in Part III of the ‘Introduction’.