Hymns of the Marshes

by Sidney Lanier, illustrated by Henry Troth

HYMNS OF THE
MARSHES

SIDNEY
LANIER

HYMNS OF THE MARSHES

Look how the grace of the sea doth go
About and about through the intricate channels that flow
Here and there,
Everywhere,

HYMNS
OF THE MARSHES

BY
SIDNEY LANIER

ILLUSTRATED FROM NATURE BY HENRY TROTH

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

The Poems of Sidney Lanier
Copyright, 1884, 1891, by Mary D. Lanier

---

Copyright, 1907, by
Charles Scribner's Sons

THE DE VINNE PRESS

HYMNS OF THE MARSHES

PAGE

Sunrise ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

3

Individuality ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

29

Marsh Song—At Sunset ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

41

The Marshes of Glynn ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

45

ILLUSTRATIONS

From photographs taken near Brunswick, Georgia, where the poet
derived his inspiration for the Hymns of the Marshes

Look how the grace of the sea doth go About and about through the intricate channels that flow Here and there, Everywhere,	Frontispiece
In my sleep I was fain of their fellowship, fain Of the live-oak, the marsh, and the main.	FACING PAGE 4
My gossip, the owl,—is it thou That out of the leaves of the low-hanging bough, As I pass to the beach, art stirred? Dumb woods, have ye uttered a bird?	10
And look where the wild duck sails round the bend of the river,—	14
And look where a passionate shiver Expectant is bending the blades Of the marsh-grass in serial shimmers and shades,—	20
Sail on, sail on, fair cousin Cloud: Oh loiter hither from the sea.	32
Over the monstrous shambling sea,	42
Glooms of the live-oaks, beautiful-braided and woven With intricate shades of the vines that myriad-cloven Clamber the forks of the multiform boughs,—	46
Of the dim sweet woods, of the dear dark woods, Of the heavenly woods and glades,	48
Affable live-oak, leaning low,—	50
Sinuous southward and sinuous northward the shimmering band Of the sand-beach fastens the fringe of the marsh to the folds of the land.	52
A league and a league of marsh-grass, waist-high, broad in the blade, Green, and all of a height, and unflecked with a light or a shade,	54
And the marsh is meshed with a million veins, That like as with rosy and silvery essences flow In the rose-and-silver evening glow.	56