Sidney Clopton Lanier (February 3, 1842 – September 7, 1881) was an American musician, poet and author. He served in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

as a private, worked on a blockade-running ship for which he was imprisoned (resulting in his catching

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

), taught, worked at a hotel where he gave musical performances, was a church organist, and worked as a lawyer. As a poet he sometimes used

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

s. Many of his poems are written in heightened, but often archaic,

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...

. He became a flautist and sold poems to publications. He eventually became a professor of literature at the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, and is known for his adaptation of musical meter to poetry. Many schools, other structures and two lakes are named for him, and he became hailed in the South as the "poet of the Confederacy". A 1972 US postage stamp honored him as an "American poet".

Biography

Sidney Clopton Lanier was born February 3, 1842, in Macon, Georgia, to parents Robert Sampson Lanier and Mary Jane Anderson; he was mostly of English ancestry. His distant French Huguenot ancestors immigrated to England in the 16th century, fleeing religious persecution. He began playing the flute at an early age, and his love of that musical instrument continued throughout his life. He attended

Oglethorpe University Oglethorpe University is a private college in Brookhaven, Georgia. It was chartered in 1835 and named in honor of General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the Colony of Georgia. History Oglethorpe University was chartered in 1834 in Mid ...

, which at the time was near Milledgeville, Georgia, and he was a member of the

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Sigma Alpha Epsilon (), commonly known as SAE, is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is t ...

fraternity. He graduated first in his class shortly before the outbreak of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. He returned to Oglethorpe the next year, as a tutor, and befriended Milton Harlow Northrup, a New York native, who was a conductor at the school. During the war, he fought primarily in the

tidewater region Tidewater refers to the north Atlantic coastal plain region of the United States of America. Definition Culturally, the Tidewater region usually includes the low-lying plains of southeast Virginia, northeastern North Carolina, southern Mary ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, where he served in the Confederate signal corps. Later, he and his brother Clifford served as pilots aboard English blockade runners, and Lanier's ship, the ''Lucy'', was captured by the USS ''Santiago de Cuba'', on November 3, 1864. Refusing to take the advice of the British officers on board to don one of their uniforms and pretend to be one of them, he was captured. He was incarcerated in a military prison at Point Lookout in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, where he contracted

(generally known as "consumption" at the time). He suffered greatly from this disease, then incurable and usually fatal, for the rest of his life.

Shortly after the war, he taught school briefly, then moved to

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

, where he worked as a night clerk at the Exchange Hotel (a hotel partly owned by his grandfather; his brother Clifford also worked there and became a part owner after the war), and also performed as a musician. He was the regular organist at the First Presbyterian Church in nearby Prattville. He wrote his only novel, ''Tiger Lilies'' (1867), while in Alabama. This novel was partly autobiographical, describing a stay in 1860 at his grandfather's Montvale Springs resort hotel near

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

. In 1867, he moved to Prattville, at that time a small town just north of Montgomery, where he taught and served as principal of a school. He married Mary Day of Macon in 1867 and moved back to his hometown, where he began working in his father's law office. After passing the Georgia bar, Lanier practiced as a lawyer for several years. During this period he wrote a number of lesser poems, using the " cracker" and "

negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...

dialects The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

of his day, about poor white and black farmers in the Reconstruction South. He traveled extensively through southern and eastern portions of the United States in search of a cure for his tuberculosis. While on one such journey in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, he rediscovered his native and untutored talent for the flute and decided to travel to the northeast in hopes of finding employment as a musician in an orchestra. Unable to find work in New York City,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, or

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, he signed on to play flute for the Peabody Orchestra in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, shortly after its organization. He taught himself musical notation and quickly rose to the position of first flautist. He was famous in his day for his performances of a personal composition for the flute called "Black Birds", which mimics the song of that species. In an effort to support Mary and their three sons, he also wrote poetry for magazines. His most famous poems were "Corn" (1875), "The Symphony" (1875), "Centennial Meditation" (1876), "The Song of the Chattahoochee" (1877), " The Marshes of Glynn", (1878) and " A Sunrise Song" (1881). The latter two poems are generally considered his greatest works. They are part of an unfinished set of lyrical nature poems known as the "Hymns of the Marshes", which describe the vast, open salt marshes of Glynn County on the coast of Georgia. (The longest bridge in Georgia is in Glynn County and is named for Lanier.)

Later life

Later in his short 39-year life, he became a student, lecturer, and, finally, a faculty member at the

in Baltimore, specializing in the works of the English novelists,

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, the Elizabethan sonneteers, Chaucer, and the Old English poets. He published a series of lectures entitled ''The English Novel'' (published posthumously in 1883) and a book entitled ''The Science of English Verse'' (1880), in which he developed a novel theory exploring the connections between musical notation and meter in poetry. Death house of Sidney Lanier

Lanier finally succumbed to complications caused by his tuberculosis on September 7, 1881, while convalescing with his family near Lynn, North Carolina. He was 39. He is buried in

Green Mount Cemetery Green Mount Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Established on March 15, 1838, and dedicated on July 13, 1839, it is noted for the large number of historical figures interred in its grounds as well as man ...

in Baltimore.

Writing style and literary theory

With his theory connecting musical notation with poetic meter, and also being described as a deft metrical technical, in his own words 'daring with his poem 'Special Pleading' to give myself such freedom as I desired, in my own style' and also by developing a unique style of poetry written in logaoedic dactyls, which was strongly influenced by the works of his beloved Anglo-Saxon poets. He wrote several of his greatest poems in this meter, including "Revenge of Hamish" (1878), "The Marshes of Glynn" and "Sunrise". In Lanier's hands, the logaoedic dactylic meter led to a free-form, almost prose-like style of poetry that was greatly admired by

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely tran ...

, Bayard Taylor,

Charlotte Cushman Charlotte Saunders Cushman (July 23, 1816 – February 18, 1876) was an American stage actress. Her voice was noted for its full contralto register, and she was able to play both male and female parts. She lived intermittently in Rome, in an expa ...

, and other leading poets and critics of the day. The "sprung verse" metric developed by Gerard Manley Hopkins at about the same time superficially resembles Lanier's practice but shows no influence (and there is no evidence that they knew each other or that either of them had read any of the other's works). Lanier also published essays on other literary and musical topics and a notable series of four redactions of literary works about knightly combat and chivalry in modernized language more appealing to the boys of his day: *''The Boy's Froissart'' (1878), a retelling of

Jean Froissart Jean Froissart (Old and Middle French: ''Jehan'', – ) (also John Froissart) was a French-speaking medieval author and court historian from the Low Countries who wrote several works, including ''Chronicles'' and ''Meliador'', a long Arthurian ...

's ''

Froissart's Chronicles Froissart's ''Chronicles'' (or ''Chroniques'') are a prose history of the Hundred Years' War written in the 14th century by Jean Froissart. The ''Chronicles'' open with the events leading up to the deposition of Edward II in 1326, and cover th ...

'', which tell of adventure, battle and custom in medieval England, France and Spain *'' The Boy's King Arthur'' (1880), based on

Sir Thomas Malory Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of ''Le Morte d'Ar ...

's compilation of the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table *''The Boy's Mabinogion'' (1881), based on the early Welsh legends of King Arthur, as retold in the '' Red Book of Hergest''. *''The Boy's Percy'' (published posthumously in 1882), consisting of old ballads of war, adventure and love based on Bishop Thomas Percy's '' Reliques of Ancient English Poetry''. He also wrote two travelogues that were widely read at the time, entitle
''Florida: Its Scenery, Climate and History''
(1875) and ''Sketches of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

'' (1876) (although he never visited India).

Legacy and honors

The Sidney Lanier Cottage in Macon, Georgia, is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. The square stone Four Southern Poets Monument, located between 7th and 8th Stresets in Augusta, lists Lanier as one of Georgia's four great poets, all of whom were in the Confederate military. The southeastern side bears this inscription: "To Sidney Lanier 1842–1880. The catholic man who hath mightily won God out of knowledge and good out of infinite pain and sight out of blindness and purity out of a stain." The other poets on the monument are James Ryder Randall, Fr.

Abram Ryan Abram Joseph Ryan (February 5, 1838 – April 22, 1886) was an American poet, Catholic priest, Catholic newspaper editor, orator, and former Vincentian. An active proponent of the Confederate States of America, he has been called the "Poet-Priest ...

, and Paul Hayne. Baltimore honored Lanier with a large and elaborate bronze and granite sculptural monument, created by Hans K. Schuler and located on the campus of the

. In addition to the monument at Johns Hopkins, Lanier was also later memorialized on the campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Upon the construction of the iconic

Duke Chapel Duke University Chapel is a chapel located at the center of the campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, United States. It is an ecumenical Christian chapel and the center of religion at Duke, and has connections to the United Method ...

between 1930 and 1935 on the university's West Campus, a statue of Lanier was included alongside two fellow prominent Southerners,

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

and Robert E. Lee. This statue, which appears to show a Lanier older than the 39 years he actually lived, is situated on the right side of the portico leading into the chapel narthex. It is prominently featured on the cover of the 2010 autobiographical memoir ''Hannah's Child'', by

Stanley Hauerwas Stanley Martin Hauerwas (born July 24, 1940) is an American theologian, ethicist, and public intellectual. Hauerwas was a longtime professor at Duke University, serving as the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity Schoo ...

, a Methodist theologian teaching at

Duke Divinity School The Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is one of ten graduate or professional schools within Duke University. It is also one of thirteen seminaries founded and supported by the United Methodist Church. It has 39 regular ...

. The United Daughters of the Confederacy worked successfully to enhance Lanier's legacy. Lanier's poem "The Marshes of Glynn" is the inspiration for a cantata by the same name that was created by the modern English composer Andrew Downes to celebrate the Royal Opening of the Adrian Boult Hall in Birmingham, England, in 1986.

Piers Anthony Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob (born 6 August 1934) is an American author in the science fiction and Fantasy (genre), fantasy genres, publishing under the name Piers Anthony. He is best known for his :Xanth books, long-running novel series set in ...

used Lanier, his life, and his poetry in his science-fiction novel '' Macroscope'' (1969). He quotes from "The Marshes of Glynn" and other references appear throughout the novel. In 1980, Yugoslav rock band

Lutajuća Srca Lutajuća Srca (Serbian Cyrillic: Лутајућа Срца, trans. ''Wandering Hearts'') was a Serbian and Yugoslav rock band formed in Niš in 1970. They were one of the most notable representatives of the Yugoslav 1970s acoustic rock scene. ...

recorded the song "Večernja pesma", featuring lyrics from Lanier's "An Evening Poem" in

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

, the song becoming a minor hit for the band. Several entities have been named for Sidney Lanier. Among them are:

Inhabited places

* Lanier Street Residential street, Decatur, Alabama * Sidney Lanier Ave residual street, Athens, GA. * Lanier Heights Neighborhood, Washington, D.C. * Lanier County, Georgia **Indirectly, , which was named for the county. * Lanier Avenue, Fayetteville, GA.

Bodies of water

Lake Lanier Lake Lanier (officially Lake Sidney Lanier) is a reservoir in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created by the completion of Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River in 1956, and is also fed by the waters of the Chestatee Ri ...

, operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers northeast of

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

*Lake Lanier in

Landrum, South Carolina Landrum is a city in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 2,376 at the 2010 census. Landrum was founded in 1880 and incorporated in 1912. It is located just west of Interstate 26 between Spartanburg and Asheville, ...

Schools

Sidney Lanier High School Sidney Lanier High School is a public high school in Montgomery, Alabama, United States. History Established in 1910 on the southern outskirts of downtown Montgomery, Alabama, the school was named for a Southern poet, Sidney Lanier, who lived in ...

(The Montgomery County Board of Education voted 5–2 on July 14, 2020, to rename the school) * Sidney Lanier School in Gainesville, Florida * Lanier University short-lived university, first Baptist, then owned by the Ku Klux Klan for a year, in

* The Sidney Lanier Building (previously Sidney Lanier Elementary School) on the campus of Glynn Academy, in Brunswick, Georgia * Lanier Middle School in Sugar Hill, Georgia * Lanier High School in Sugar Hill, Georgia * Lanier Elementary School in Gainesville, Georgia *Sidney Lanier Elementary School in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

in Austin, Texas. Renamed to Juan Navarro High School Feb, 2019 *Sidney Lanier Expressive Arts Vanguard Elementary School in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

* Lanier Middle School in Houston, Texas (Now Bob Lanier Middle School after 90 years as Sidney Lanier Middle School) * Lanier High School in San Antonio, Texas * Sidney Lanier Elementary School in Tampa, Florida * Lanier Technical College in Oakwood, Georgia. * Katherine Johnson Middle School in Fairfax, Virginia was named Sidney Lanier Middle School for 60 years before being renamed for Johnson in 2021.

Other

* Sidney Lanier Cottage, the birthplace of Lanier, in Macon, Georgia *

Sidney Lanier Bridge The Sidney Lanier Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge that spans the Brunswick River in Brunswick, Georgia, carrying four lanes of U.S. Route 17. The current bridge was built as a replacement to the original vertical-lift bridge, which was twice ...

over the South Brunswick River in Brunswick, Georgia * Sidney Lanier Monument, a monument in Piedmont Park in Atlanta * Lanier's Oak in Brunswick, Georgia * The Lanier Library, Tryon, North Carolina. Lanier's widow, Mary, donated two of his volumes of poetry to begin the collection when the library was established in 1890. *Sidney Lanier Camp, Eliot, Maine. * Sidney Lanier Boulevard in Duluth, GA *The Sidney Lanier Suite at The Harwood Cottage at Historic Macon, GA *The

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Liberty Ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...

was named in his honor. *A 1972 US eight-cent postage stamp: "Sidney Lanier - American poet" *Sidney Lanier Memorial Scholarship at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

* Lanier Island, in the Mackay River in Glynn County, Georgia.