Sidney Lanier Summary

The work of Sidney Lanier (1842-1881), American poet, critic, and musician, bridged southern romantic literature and 20th-century realism. He spent his life trying to convince America that poetry and ... Read more

In the following excerpt, Painter examines Sidney Lanier's life, poetry, and literary criticism. Lanier's genius was predominantly musical. He descended from a musical ancestry, which... Read more

In the following essay, Kimball reads Lanier's only novel, Tiger-Lilies, for its realism, arguing that had Lanier's use of realism been more consistent, the novel would have been more ef... Read more

In the following excerpt, De Bellis explores The Science of English Verse for Lanier's literary criticism and his discussion of the relationship between music and poetry. In his last years L... Read more

In the following excerpt, Gabin retraces both the negative critical reaction and the positive public response to Lanier's Centennial Meditation of Columbia, demonstrating that the verses read a... Read more

In the following essay, Young examines Lanier's public lectures on Shakespeare, which were posthumously published as Shakspere and his Forerunners: Studies in Elizabethan Poetry, and calls this... Read more

In the following excerpt, Starke examines Lanier's Florida: Its Scenery, Climate, and History and “Sketches of India,” which most critics consider to be substandard works. Starke ... Read more

In the following essay, originally presented in 1964, Bowdre reads Lanier's dialect poems for his use of Eye Dialect, or the use of “quasi-phonetic spellings” to represent regiona... Read more

In the following essay, Parks considers Sidney Lanier as a poet, examines some of Lanier's better-known poems, and argues that he was never considered a major American poet because his poor hea... Read more

In the following essay, Havens discusses Lanier's theory that there can be no beauty without moral goodness, and traces this theory of etherealization through Lanier's literary criticism... Read more

In the following excerpt, Lenhart offers a study of the role of music in the development and content of Lanier's poetry. [Sidney] Lanier is the only professional musician in the annals of Am... Read more

In the following essay, Leary offers a brief survey of critical opinion about Lanier's poetry and prose. Some years ago three prominent Southern poets set upon Sidney Lanier with vehemence w... Read more

In the following essay, Richman discusses the jurisprudential value of Lanier's poetry and the influence of Lanier's legal training on his literary pursuits. Introduction While the Co... Read more