Part 22

Aside from the numerous unapproachable snatches in Shakespeare,* I know of nothing on the subject in English literature comparable to `Sunrise'. Mr. W. W. Story's `Sunrise' is perhaps the closest parallel, and yet it is far inferior to Lanier's, as every reader of the two will admit. If one wishes to make further comparisons, he may find sunrise poems in the following authors: Blake, Cowper, Emerson, Hood, Keats, Longfellow, Southey, Thompson, Willis, etc. I may add that an interesting, though superficial article on `The Poetry of Sunrise and Sunset' may be found in `Chambers's Edinburgh Journal', 22, 234, October 7, 1854.

-- * Among others I may cite the following passages:

"Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,"

in `Cymbeline', 2, 3;

"But look the morn in russet mantle clad Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill,"

in `Hamlet', 1, 1;

"Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops,"

in `Romeo and Juliet', 3, 5; and

"Full many a glorious morning have I seen" etc.,

`Sonnet xxxiii'. --

3, 13-14. See `Introduction', p. xxxii [Part III], and compare l. 26.

39-53. See `Introduction', p. xxxiii [Part III].

42. I had made the comparison between Lanier and St. Francis before reading Dr. Gates's essay on Lanier, and was delighted to find my judgment confirmed by so competent a critic. Dr. Gates is quite emphatic: "Since St. Francis, no soul has seemed so heavily overcharged with this feeling of brotherhood for all created things." `The Canticle of the Sun', otherwise known as `The Song of the Creatures', may be found in metrical form in Mrs. Oliphant's life of St. Francis (New York, 1870) and in prose in Sabatier's (Scribners, New York, 1894).

54. Lanier has an `Owl against Robin'.

57. See `Introduction', p. xli [Part IV].

80-85. See `Introduction', p. xliii [Part IV].

86-152. See `Introduction', p. xlvii [Part IV]. Mr. F. F. Browne says that in lyric sweetness ll. 86-97 recall the best of Keats and Shelley.

114-115. See `Introduction', p. xliv [Part IV].

127. Lanier has a poem entitled `The Bee'.

134-136. See `Introduction', p. xliii [Part IV].

181. Compare Mrs. Easter's tribute, `Lit with the Sun'.

189-192. See `Introduction', p. xxi [Part I], and compare Cowdin's tribute, `Hopeset and Sunrise', and the closing stanza of Hamlin Garland's:

"While heart's blood ebbed at every breath He passed life's head-land bleak and dun, Flew through the western gate of Death And took his place beside the sun."

Bibliography

I. Collected Prose Works

Tiger-lilies: A Novel. 16mo, pp. v, 252. Hurd & Houghton, New York, 1867. Out of print.

Florida: Its Scenery, Climate, and History. 12mo, pp. 336. J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1876.

The Boy's Froissart. Being Sir John Froissart's Chronicles of Adventure, Battle, and Custom in England, France, Spain, etc. Edited for Boys. Crown 8vo, pp. xxviii, 422. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1878.