Bibb County GaArchives Biographies.....Lanier, Sidney February 3 1842 - September 7 1881 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Carla Miles http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00010.html#0002476 September 20, 2004, 1:59 am Author: Memoirs of Georgia, Vol. II, Atlanta, Ga. Memoirs of Georgia, Vol. II, Atlanta, Ga. Published by the Atlanta Historical Society in 1895 Pages 35-37 Sidney Lanier Sidney Lanier was born at Macon, Ga., where his father, Robert S. Lanier, was a practicing lawyer. His mother was Mary Anderson, of Scotch descent, a native of Virginia, and gifted in poetry and music. When a child he taught himself to play upon the banjo, guitar, piano, violin and flute. He afterward became finest flute player in the world. At the age of fourteen he entered Oglethorpe College near Midway, Ga., and was graduated, taking class honors. He excelled in mathematics, and during his whole college life it is said that he never shirked a duty or responsibility. After graduation he remained in the school as a tutor until the breaking out of the war. He and a younger brother, Clifford, enlisted as privates in the Confederate army with the Macon volunteers of the Second Georgia battalion. Several times Sidney was offered promotion, but he always refused it, because it would have separated him from his much beloved brother. The year in the camp was pleasant without many hardships, and Sidney spent his time in learning French, German and Spanish, and in playing his flute. Later on he was in the battles of Seven Pines, Drury’s Bluff, and the seven days’ fighting around Richmond. After the fight at Malvern Hill the brothers were transferred to the signal service and stationed for a short time at Petersburg. He saw service in Virginia and North Carolina, and toward the last of the war the brothers were separated, each being put in charge of a vessel to run the blockade. Sidney’s vessel was captured and he was confined for five months at Point Lookout prison. He had concealed his flute in his sleeve and this now became his dearest treasure. Near the close of the war he was exchanged and with his flute and a twenty dollar gold piece which he had when captured, he started for his Georgia home on foot in February 1865. In March he reached home, exhausted from his tramp, and six weeks of illness followed, during which time his mother died of consumption. The two years following he was employed as a clerk in Montgomery, Ala. The second year he went north to see about the publication of his novel, Tiger Lilies. Of this book describing his life during the war, Dr. Ward has written: “It is a luxuriant, unpruned work, written in haste for the press within the space of three weeks, but one which gives rich promise of the poet.” Returning south he became principal of a school at Prattville and in the same year, 1867, married Miss Mary Day, daughter of Charles Day, of Macon. She had the utmost faith in her husband’s abilities, and of this belief in him Mr. Lanier has written most gratefully. In My Springs he writes of her thus: “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 a dying violet breath, Yet calmly unafraid of death.” “Dear eyes, dear eyes! and rare complete, Being heavenly sure and earthly sweet, I marvel that God made you mine, For when he frowns ‘tis then you shine.” About a year after his marriage a severe hemorrhage of the lungs alarmed his friends and wife, and caused him to resign his principalship. He then began to practice law with his father, and for five years proceeded, all the time struggling against consumption. By the advice of physicians he went to Texas for a change of climate. This did not bring the desired improvement, and knowing at best his life would not be long, and conscious of his genius, he determined to devote his remaining days to music and poetry. “With his flute and pen as sword and staff he turned his path northward, where an author had better opportunities for study and observation than in the struggling south, in which pretty much the whole of life had been merely not dying.” In Baltimore, where he made his home, he was engaged as first flute in the Peabody symphony concerts. Asger Hamerik, his director for six years in the Peabody symphony orchestra, thus speaks of him: “I will never forget the impression he made on me when he played the flute concerto of Emil Hartman at a Peabody symphony concert in 1878 – his tall, handsome, manly presence; his flute breathing noble sorrows, noble joys; the orchestra softly responding. The audience was spell- bound. Such distinction, such refinement! He stood the master, the genius.” During this time he was carrying on a course of study in the Anglo-Saxon and the early English texts. For months at a time he would have to give up all work and seek a change of air. Having contracted a fresh cold in November, 1876, he was obliged to go to Florida, and returning home, spent a while with friends in Georgia and Tennessee. For three winters following he played in the Peabody concerts in Baltimore. A course of Shakespearean lectures he delivered severely taxed his waning strength, but was the means of getting him the chair of English literature at Johns Hopkins. This brought him a regular salary and stimulated him to give utterance to his songs. Prominent among these were the Song of the Chattahoochee, A Song of Love, The Revenge of Hamish. He then was forced to go to Rockingham Springs, Va., where he lay exhausted by hemorrhages. Still his indomitable energy led him to the work of a strong man. Besides many poems, he wrote here and sent to the press his Science of English Verse, the only one in existence, giving a scientific basis of poetry. Rallying himself he went to Baltimore in September and the amount of work the dying man now accomplished was marvelous. He opened lecture schools, attended constant rehearsals, lectured at the university, besides writing poems. In January he was again ill, and continued failing until July, when he went to West Chester, Pa. As the weather grew cooler he returned to Baltimore and attended his lectures in a carriage, always sitting as he lectured. Such a force of will was wonderful. He wrote Sunrise when he couldn’t feed himself. As a last resort he was taken to Asheville, N.C., and Mrs. Lanier, with her youngest child, came on to nurse him. As there was no improvement in his condition he made another effort, and the husband and wife took carriage across the mountain to Lynn, Polk Co. The father and brother were summoned here by telegram to the dying man, but they arrived too late to see him alive. The body was taken to Baltimore. In 1888 a marble bust was erected to his memory in that city. Additional Comments: Transcriber's note: According to the webpage, www.findagrave.com, Sidney Lanier was born on 2/3/1842 in Macon, Ga. and died on 9/7/1881 in Lynn, NC. He is buried at Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, MD. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/bibb/bios/bs254lanier.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/ File size: 7.6 Kb