"The English Novel," "Shakespeare and His Forerunners."

In August, 1874, at Sunnyside, Georgia, amid the loneliness of
abandoned farms, the glory of cornfields, and the mysterious beauty of
forest, he wrote "Corn," the first of his poems to attract the
attention of the country. It was published in _Lippincott's_ in 1875.
Charlotte Cushman was so charmed by it that she sought out the author
in Baltimore, and the two became good friends.

At 64 Centre Street, Baltimore, Lanier wrote "The Symphony," which he
said took hold of him "about four days ago like a real James River
ague, and I have been in a mortal shake with the same, day and night,
ever since," which is the only way that a real poem or real music or a
real picture ever can get into the world. He says that he "will be
rejoiced when it is finished, for it verily racks all the bones of my
spirit." It appeared in _Lippincott's_, June, 1875.

Lanier was at 66 Centre Street, Baltimore, when he wrote the words of
the Centennial Cantata, which he said he "tried to make as simple and
candid as a melody of Beethoven." He wrote to a friend that he was not
disturbed because a paper had said that the poem of the Cantata was
like a "communication from the spirit of Nat Lee through a Bedlamite
medium." It was "but a little grotesque episode, as when a catbird
paused in the midst of the most exquisite roulades and melodies to mew
and then take up his song again."

* * * * *

In December of that year he was compelled to seek a milder climate in
Florida, taking with him a commission to write a book about Florida