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Sidney Lanier Quotes (1842-1881)
Poet, Musician, Novelist
About Sidney Lanier
Sidney Lanier (February 3, 1842 – July 7, 1881) was an American poet, novelist and musician. Lanier died from complications of tuberculosis; aged thirty-nine.
Best Sidney Lanier Quotes
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Sidney Lanier quotes.
“Sweet Sometime, fly fast for me.”
“The incalculable Up-and-Down of Time.”
“The sun is a-wait at the ponderous gate of the West.”
“Verse is a set of specially related sounds, repeated aloud.”
“My principle is, the artist shall put forth, humbly & lovingly, without bitterness, the very best & highest that is within him,utterly regardless of contemporary criticism.”
“Virginal shy lights,
Wrought of the leaves to allure to the whisper of vows,
When lovers pace timidly down through the green colonnades
Of the dim sweet woods, of the dear dark woods,
Of the heavenly woods and glades,
That run to the radiant marginal sand-beach within
The wide sea-marshes of Glynn.”
Wrought of the leaves to allure to the whisper of vows,
When lovers pace timidly down through the green colonnades
Of the dim sweet woods, of the dear dark woods,
Of the heavenly woods and glades,
That run to the radiant marginal sand-beach within
The wide sea-marshes of Glynn.”
“Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-withholding and free
Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the sea!
Tolerant plains, that suffer the sea and the rains and the sun,
Ye spread and span like the catholic man who hath mightily won
God out of knowledge and good out of infinite pain
And sight out of blindness and purity out of a stain.”
Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the sea!
Tolerant plains, that suffer the sea and the rains and the sun,
Ye spread and span like the catholic man who hath mightily won
God out of knowledge and good out of infinite pain
And sight out of blindness and purity out of a stain.”
Sidney Lanier Quotes by Topic
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Sidney Lanier on Marsh
“Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-with-holding and free Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the sea!”
Sidney Lanier on Sleep
Sidney Lanier on Rivers
“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.”
Sidney Lanier on Music
“A velvet flute-note fell down pleasantly, Upon the bosom of that harmony, And sailed and sailed incessantly, As if a petal from a wild-rose blown Had fluttered down upon that pool of tone, And boatwise dropped o' the convex side And floated down the glassy tide And clarified and glorified The solemn spaces where the shadows bide. From the warm concave of that fluted note Somewhat, half song, half odour forth did float As if a rose might somehow be a throat.”
What Sidney Lanier Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Sidney Lanier shared regarding contemporaries.
Sidney Lanier on Jesus
“Into the woods, my Master went, Clean forspent, forspent. Into the woods my Master came, Forspent with love and shame. But the olives they were not blind to Him, The little gray leaves were kind to Him: The thorn-tree had a mind to Him, When into the woods He came.”
About Sidney Lanier
Sidney Lanier (February 3, 1842 – July 7, 1881) was an American poet, novelist and musician. Lanier died from complications of tuberculosis; aged thirty-nine.