For the uninitiated, here's one of Lanier's two most famous poems. I'm not 
crazy about it, but the other, The Marshes of Glynn, is unbearable.

The Song of the Chattahoochee

Out of the hills of Habersham,
Down the valleys of Hall,
I hurry amain to reach the plain,
Run the rapid and leap the fall,
Split at the rock and together again,
Accept my bed, or narrow or wide,
And flee from folly on every side
With a lover's pain to attain the plain
Far from the hills of Habersham,
Far from the valleys of Hall.

All down the hills of Habersham,
All through the valleys of Hall,
The rushes cried `Abide, abide,'
The willful waterweeds held me thrall,
The laving laurel turned my tide,
The ferns and the fondling grass said `Stay,'
The dewberry dipped for to work delay,
And the little reeds sighed `Abide, abide,
Here in the hills of Habersham,
Here in the valleys of Hall.'

High o'er the hills of Habersham,
Veiling the valleys of Hall,
The hickory told me manifold
Fair tales of shade, the poplar tall
Wrought me her shadowy self to hold,
The chestnut, the oak, the walnut, the pine,
Overleaning, with flickering meaning and sign,
Said, `Pass not, so cold, these manifold
Deep shades of the hills of Habersham,
These glades in the valleys of Hall.'

And oft in the hills of Habersham,
And oft in the valleys of Hall,
The white quartz shone, and the smooth brook-stone
Did bar me of passage with friendly brawl,
And many a luminous jewel lone
-- Crystals clear or a-cloud with mist,
Ruby, garnet and amethyst --
Made lures with the lights of streaming stone
In the clefts of the hills of Habersham,
In the beds of the valleys of Hall.

But oh, not the hills of Habersham,
And oh, not the valleys of Hall
Avail: I am fain for to water the plain.
Downward the voices of Duty call --
Downward, to toil and be mixed with the main,
The dry fields burn, and the mills are to turn,
And a myriad flowers mortally yearn,
And the lordly main from beyond the plain
Calls o'er the hills of Habersham,
Calls through the valleys of Hall.




At 09:56 AM 8/26/2005, you wrote:
>How did Lanier come up in the first place, Robin? I know you you mentioned 
>him to me, but hanged if I remember why. It's an interesting theory, but I 
>don't remember feeling very impressed at the way he formulated it. And I 
>really don't care for his work, though I believe Roger likes him. In fact, 
>not to put too fine a point on it, I was disappointed as well as interested.
>
>Just occurs to me though -- I wonder if the fact that he was a flautist 
>rather than, say, a violinist mightn't have had some connection with the 
>poetry. Breathing an' that. I've been too busy wondering how a man who 
>fought TB for most of his adult life could manage to play the flute to a 
>professional standard (now that I *do admire him for, though we won't be 
>talking James Galway stuff, from a historical point of view), to think 
>what else the fact of breath, bar, phrase might affect. Or even effect, in 
>this particular case.
>
>joanna