Preface



This edition of the `Select Poems of Sidney Lanier' is issued
in the hope of making his poetry known to wider circles than hitherto,
especially among the students of our high-schools and colleges.
To these as to older people, the poems will, it is believed,
prove an inspiration from the stand-point both of literature and of life.

The biographical section of the Introduction rests in the main
upon Dr. Ward's admirable `Memorial' prefixed to the `Poems of Sidney Lanier'
edited by his wife, though a few additional facts have been gleaned
here and there. For most* of the Bibliography down to 1888 I am indebted
to my Hopkins comrade, Dr. Richard E. Burton, now of Hartford, Conn.,
who compiled one for the `Memorial of Sidney Lanier',
published by President Gilman, of the Johns Hopkins University, in 1888.
Obligations to other publications about Lanier are in every instance
acknowledged in the appropriate place.

--
* I say `most of the Bibliography down to 1888', because Dr. Burton's
different purpose led him to exclude items that could not be omitted
in a Bibliography that, like mine, tries to be complete.
--