whom he declared*4* all his roads reached, is most clearly expressed
in a scrap quoted by Ward, apparently the outline for a poem:
"I fled in tears from the men's ungodly quarrel about God.
I fled in tears to the woods, and laid me down on the earth.
Then somewhat like the beating of many hearts came up to me out of the ground;
and I looked and my cheek lay close to a violet. Then my heart took courage,
and I said: `I know that thou art the word of my God, dear Violet.
And oh, the ladder is not long that to my heaven leads.
Measure what space a violet stands above the ground. 'Tis no further climbing
that my soul and angels have to do than that.'"*5* In this high spirituality
Lanier is in line with the greatest poets of our race, from

"Caedmon, in the morn
A-calling angels with the cow-herd's call
That late brought up the cattle,"*6*

to him

"Who never turned his back, but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake."*7*

--
*1* 1 John 4:16.
*2* `The Crystal', ll. 100-111.
*3* Hayne's `A Poet's Letters to a Friend'.
*4* In `A Florida Sunday', l. 85.
*5* Ward's `Memorial', p. xxxix.