O Artisan born in the purple, -- Workman Heat, --Parter of passionate atoms that travail to meet And be mixed in the death-cold oneness, -- innermost Guest At the marriage of elements, -- fellow of publicans, -- blest King in the blouse of flame, that loiterest o'er The idle skies yet laborest fast evermore, --Thou, in the fine forge-thunder, thou, in the beat Of the heart of a man, thou Motive, -- Laborer Heat:
Yea, Artist, thou, of whose art yon sea's all news, [161]
With his inshore greens and manifold mid-sea blues, Pearl-glint, shell-tint, ancientest perfectest hues Ever shaming the maidens, -- lily and rose Confess thee, and each mild flame that glows In the clarified virginal bosoms of stones that shine, It is thine, it is thine:
Thou chemist of storms, whether driving the winds a-swirl Or a-flicker the subtiler essences polar that whirl In the magnet earth, -- yea, thou with a storm for a heart, Rent with debate, many-spotted with question, part[171]
From part oft sundered, yet ever a globed light, Yet ever the artist, ever more large and bright Than the eye of a man may avail of: -- manifold One, I must pass from thy face, I must pass from the face of the Sun:
Old Want is awake and agog, every wrinkle a-frown;The worker must pass to his work in the terrible town:
But I fear not, nay, and I fear not the thing to be done;I am strong with the strength of my lord the Sun:
How dark, how dark soever the race that must needs be run, I am lit with the Sun.[181]
Oh, never the mast-high run of the seas Of traffic shall hide thee, Never the hell-colored smoke of the factories Hide thee, Never the reek of the time's fen-politics Hide thee, And ever my heart through the night shall with knowledge abide thee, And ever by day shall my spirit, as one that hath tried thee, Labor, at leisure, in art, -- till yonder beside thee My soul shall float, friend Sun, [191]
The day being done.
____
Baltimore, December, 1880.
Notes: Sunrise In the words of Mrs.Lanier, "`Sunrise', Mr.Lanier's latest completed poem, was written while his sun of life seemed fairly at the setting, and the hand which first pencilled its lines had not strength to carry nourishment to the lips." See `Introduction', p.xviii [Part I].
Lanier has two other poems on the same theme, both short:
`A Sunrise Song' and `Between Dawn and Sunrise' (entered under `Marsh Hymns').
As already pointed out (`Introduction', pp.xxxi [Part III], xlvii [Part IV]), `Sunrise' shows in a powerful way the delicacy and the comprehensiveness of Lanier's love for nature.True, as I have elsewhere stated (`Introduction', p.xlvi [Part IV]), the poem has some serious limitations, more I think than has `The Marshes of Glynn'; but, despite its shortcomings, `Sunrise' is from an absolute stand-point a great poem;while, if we consider the circumstances under which it was produced, it is, in the words of Professor Kent, "a world-marvel".
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."BibliographyI.Collected Prose WorksTiger-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.
The Science of English Verse.Crown 8vo, pp.xv, 315.
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1880.
