the soaring genius'd Sylvester
That earlier loosed the knot great Newton tied,"
An algebraic theorem announced by Newton was demonstrated and extended
by Sylvester.
That earlier loosed the knot great Newton tied,"
An algebraic theorem announced by Newton was demonstrated and extended
by Sylvester.
Sidney Lanier
Of this newly-written poem Mr. Lanier says in a letter of March, 1874:
"Of course, since I have written it to print I cannot make it such
as *I* desire in artistic design: for the forms of to-day
require a certain trim smugness and clean-shaven propriety
in the face and dress of a poem, and I must win a hearing
by conforming in some degree to these tyrannies, with a view
to overturning them in the future. Written so, it is not nearly so beautiful
as I would have it; and I therefore have another still in my heart,
which I will some day write for myself. "
VII. A Song of Love.
`A Song of Love', like `Betrayal', belongs to the early plan
of `The Jacquerie'. It was written for one of the Fool's songs and,
after several recastings, took its present shape in 1879.
To Nannette Falk-Auerbach.
This sonnet was originally written in the German and published
in a German daily of Baltimore, while the author's translation
appeared at the same time in the Baltimore `Gazette'.
To Our Mocking-Bird.
The history of this bird's life is given at length under the title of "Bob",
in `The Independent' of August 3, 1882, and will show that he deserved
to be immortal -- as we hope he is.
Ode to the Johns Hopkins University.
" . . .
the soaring genius'd Sylvester
That earlier loosed the knot great Newton tied,"
An algebraic theorem announced by Newton was demonstrated and extended
by Sylvester. -- Sidney Lanier.
A Ballad of Trees and the Master.
`A Ballad of Trees and the Master' was conceived as an interlude
of the latest `Hymn of the Marshes', `Sunrise', although written earlier.
In the author's first copy and first revision of that `Hymn',
the `Ballad' was incorporated, following the invocation to the trees
which closes with:
"And there, oh there
As ye hang with your myriad palms upturned in the air,
Pray me a myriad prayer. "
In Mr. Lanier's final copy the `Ballad' is omitted.
It was one of several interludes which he at first designed,
but, for some reason, afterwards abandoned.
To My Class: On Certain Fruits and Flowers Sent Me in Sickness.
A class in English Literature, composed of young girls
who had been studying with Mr. Lanier `The Knighte's Tale' of Chaucer.
The sonnet `On Violet's Wafers' was addressed to a member of the same class,
and is similarly conceived.
Under the Cedarcroft Chestnut.
"This chestnut-tree (at Cedarcroft, the estate of Mr. Bayard Taylor,
in Pennsylvania), is estimated to be more than eight hundred years old. "
-- Sidney Lanier, 1877.
