Sidney Lanier Biography | Poet

Sidney Lanier was born in Macon, Georgia, on February 3, 1842. He came from a family of musicians, and he himself was a skilled performer on various instruments. It is not surprising that his poetry emphasizes—perhaps even overemphasizes—the influence of music. Lanier attended Oglethorpe College, graduating at the age of eighteen in 1860. A year later, he volunteered as a private in the Confederate Army. After several months of imprisonment—having been captured while serving as a signal officer on a blockade-runner—Lanier was released in February 1865. He returned to Georgia on foot, accompanied only by his flute, which he refused to part with. His health, never very robust, was severely compromised by his imprisonment, and he was already suffering from tuberculosis, which he would struggle against for the rest of his life.

At just twenty-three years old, Lanier faced the challenge of choosing a vocation, complicated further by his marriage in 1867. He spent five years studying and practicing law, during which time he wrote relatively little poetry. However, the law could not satisfy him; sensing premonitions of death, he understood that he needed to devote his talents to art while he still had time. In 1873, he was fortunate enough to secure a position as a flautist with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Baltimore, where he had access to the music and literature he craved. During this time, he wrote many of his best poems. In 1879, he was appointed lecturer on English at Johns Hopkins University, where he wrote his major prose work, "The Science of English Verse," a brilliant if not conclusive study.

In addition to his poetry, Lanier wrote several books for boys, the two most popular being "The Boy’s Froissart" (1878) and "The Boy’s King Arthur" (1880).

While Lanier’s poetry is often charming, it tends to incorporate frequent theorizing and a conscious effort to align verse with pure music. He primarily thought in terms of musical form, even in his most intellectual ideas. His main theory—that English verse is fundamentally based on strict musical quantity rather than accent—is an erroneous conclusion that stems from his belief that "whatever turn I have for art is purely musical—poetry being with me a mere tangent into which I shoot." Lanier excelled in his ballads, and although his lyrics display a similar spontaneity, many of his works suffer from strained effects, elaborate conceits, and a tendency toward mere pattern-making. Nevertheless, vigorous pieces such as "The Song of the Chattahoochee," lyrics like "Night and Day" and "The Stirrup Cup," and sections of the symphonic "Hymns of the Marshes" secure his place in American literature. While never a prominent figure, he remains one of the most interesting and spiritual of our minor poets.

Lanier passed away, a victim of his disease, in the mountains of North Carolina on September 7, 1881.