No More Learning

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.

Hard by stood its mate, apparently somewhat younger.
It is related in a letter of 1882, from Mrs. Taylor, that in 1880,
a year after Mr. Taylor's death, one of these majestic trees
gave the first signs of decay: while his comrade lingered two years longer --
to follow as closely the footsteps of Mr. Lanier: the two,
faithful-hearted "to their master and to him who sang of them. "


A Florida Ghost.

The incidents recorded of this storm are matter of history
in and around Tampa.