LANIER, SIDNEY (1842-1881), American poet, was born at Macon, Ga., on Feb. 3, 1842. He was of Huguenot descent on his father's side, and of Scottish and American on his mother's. From childhood he was passionately fond of music. When years old he entered Oglethorpe college, where, after graduating with distinction, he held a tutorship. He served from 1861-65 in the Civil War, returning home in broken health. In 1867 he visited New York in connection with his novel Tiger Lilies—an immature work, dealing in part with his war experiences. The next year he began to study and practise law with his father. In 1872 he went to Texas for his health, but was forced to return, and he secured an engagement as first flute in the Peabody con certs at Baltimore (Dec. 1873). He wrote a guide-book to Florida (1876), and tales for boys from Froissart, Malory, the Mabinogion and Percy's Reliques (1878-82). His reputation gradually in creased, and he was enabled to study music and literature, espe cially Anglo-Saxon poetry. In 1876 he wrote his ambitious cantata for the Centennial Exhibition, and returned north. A small volume of verse appeared in the next year. In 1879 he was made lecturer on English literature at Johns Hopkins university. His lectures became the basis of his Science of English Verse (188o)—his most important prose work, and an admirable discussion of the relations of music and poetry—and also of his English Novel (1883). Work had to be abandoned on account of growing feeble
ness, and in the spring of 1881 he was carried to Lynn, N.C., to try camp life, and died there on Sept. 7. An enlarged and final edition (1884) of his poems was prepared by his wife, his Letters, 1866-1881 (1899) and several volumes of miscellaneous prose assisted in keeping his name before the public. A posthumous work on Shakspere and his Forerunners (London, 2 vols., 1902) was edited by H. W. Lanier. Among his more noteworthy poems are "Corn," "The Revenge of Hamish," "Song of the Chattahoochee" and "The Marshes of Glynn." By some his genius is regarded as musical rather than poetic, and his style is considered hectic ; by others he is held to be one of the most original and most talented of modern American poets.
See a "Memorial," by W. H. Ward, prefixed to the Poems (1884) ; Letters of Sidney Lanier (1899), edited by H. W. Lanier and Mrs. Sidney Lanier; E. Mims, Sidney Lanier (19°5). There is a bibliography of Lanier's scattered writings in Select Poems (New York, 1896; Toronto, 1900) edited by M. Callaway. (W. P. T.)