Moreover, it should be observed that Lanier frequently uses
significant compounds, -- a habit acquired, no doubt,
from his study of Old English, in which, as in German, such compounds abound.

--
*1* See `Lowell' in `Bibliography'.
*2* `From the Flats', ll. 23-24; cited by Gates. [Line 24 was changed
(to "Bright leaps a living brook!") in later editions. -- A. L., 1998.]
*3* `Clover', ll. 29-30.
*4* `Sunrise', l. 57; cited by Gates.
*5* `The Mocking-Bird', l. 14.
*6* `The Crystal', l. 1. Other illustrations may be found in the paragraph
on figures of speech.
--

While in the main Lanier's sentence-construction is good,
occasionally his sentences are too long, as in `My Springs',
`To Bayard Taylor', and `Sunrise', in which we have sentences
longer than the opening one in `Paradise Lost', and, what is of more moment,
not so well balanced, and hence affording fewer breathing spaces.
That this detracts from clearness and euphony both, every reader will admit.

To come to the figures of speech, one must be struck at once
with the delicacy and the vigor of Lanier's imagination. The poet's fancy
personifies what at first blush seems to us incapable of personification.
Thus at one time*1* he likens men to clover-leaves and the Course-of-things
to the browsing ox, which makes way with the clover-heads;
while at another he addresses an old red hill of Georgia as