Celebrating Georgian Poet, Musician, and Author Sidney Lanier: He Was Lit with the Sun

February 3, 1842

Today is the birthday of the American poet, musician, and author Sidney Lanier.

Born in Macon, Georgia, Sidney rose to fame after writing a poem about, of all things, corn.

He had been visiting friends when he was immediately struck by the “beauty of cornfields and the pathos of deserted farms.”

Sidney is one of our under-appreciated 19th-century poets.

Music and nature were endless wells of inspiration for Sidney’s work.

After fighting in the Civil War, he wrote a book about his experience called Tiger Lilies.

Sidney could be light-hearted:

I am but a small-winged bird:

But I will conquer the big world

As the bee-martin beats the crow,

By attacking it always from above.

Sidney was also spiritual - as in his poem A Ballad of Trees and the Master about the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, with a compelling first verse that ends:

But the olives they were not blind to Him,

The little gray leaves were kind to Him:

The thorn-tree had a mind to Him

When into the woods He came.

Today, gardeners can visit the Sidney Lanier Cottage in Macon, Georgia. If you go, there is a marvelous little herb garden with cobblestone paths and a sundial in the center. The little cottage gets high marks on Trip Advisor, where one reviewer wrote,

From the moment we walked in and breathed in the scent of the old building, to the end of the (extra good) tour, we enjoyed everything we learned.

Today, a school called the Sidney Lanier Center in northeast Gainesville, Florida offers education to elementary and secondary students with disabilities.

In 2015, students created the Sidney Lanier Community Garden with the help of a master gardener named Susan Lucas. Today, the whole school enjoys the garden, which grows herbs (for cooking and sensory therapy), carrots, kale, blueberries, and strawberries.

Sidney’s dream was to teach at a new University called Johns Hopkins. Three years after the University opened, Sidney was invited to teach. He became an instant sensation with the students, but his body failed him.

In 1880, after battling years of poor health due to tuberculosis contracted during his time in the Civil War, Sidney wrote his final poem, "Sunrise,"

After lecturing for over a year, Sidney had to teach sitting down. He was 39 years old.

When the school year ended, Sidney and his family went to North Carolina to reset his failing health. Instead, he died with his family around him in a home in Tryon, just a few blocks west of where the musician Nina Simone would grow up.

Fittingly, Sidney’s grave in Baltimore is inscribed with words from his final poem:

I am lit with the Sun.