Poems

Sidney Clopton Lanier was an American poet and musician. He was strongly influenced by the works of his beloved Anglo-Saxon poets and desired to follow their sense of writing. It helped Lanier to develop a unique theory and style of writing poetry with the logaoedic dactyls. His theory of poetic meter was tightly connected with musical notation and is called a 'deft metrical technique.' He wrote several of his greatest poems in this meter, including "Revenge of Hamish", "The Marshes of Glynn" and "Sunrise". After publishing the poem 'Special Pleading' Lanier said that while writing he finally gave himself the freedom he desired.