THE MARSHES OF GLYNN* 



BY SIDNEY LANIER 



GLOOMS of the live-oaks, beautiful-braided and woven 

 With intricate shades of the vines that myriad-cloven 

 Clamber the forks of the multiform boughs 

 Emerald twilights 

 Virginal shy lights, 



Wrought of the leaves to allure to the whisper of vows, 

 When lovers pace timidly down through the green 



colonnades 



Of the dim sweet woods, of the dear dark woods, 

 Of the heavenly woods and glades, 

 That run to the radiant marginal sand-beach within 



The wide sea-marshes of Glynn; 



Beautiful glooms, soft dusks in the noonday fire 

 Wildwood privacies, closets of lone desire, 

 Chamber from Chamber parted with wavering 



arras of leaves 

 Cells for the passionate pleasure of prayer to the 



soul that grieves, 

 Pure with a sense of the passing of saints through the 



wood, 



* From " The Poems of Sidney Lanier." Copyright 1884, 1891, 

 by Mary D. Lanier; published by Charles Scribner's Sons. 



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