Although `The Jacquerie' remained a fragment for thirteen years Mr. Lanier's interest in the subject never abated. Far on in this interval he is found planning for leisure to work out in romance the story of that savage insurrection of the French peasantry, which the Chronicles of Froissart had impressed upon his boyish imagination.
To ——.
The era of verse-writing with Mr. Lanier reopens in this dream of the Virginia bay where poet's reveries and war's awakenings continually alternated.
He presents it for a friend's criticism — at the age of twenty-one — in these words: "I send you a little poem which sang itself through me the other day. 'Tis the first I've written in many years."
Night.
This poem was not published by the writer and the simile of the second verse was appropriated to `An Evening Song'. This partial repetition — like that of portions of `The Tournament' and of `A Dream of June', which occur in the `Psalm of the West' — will be pardoned as affording a favorable opportunity to observe Mr. Lanier's growth in artistic form.
The Centennial Cantata.
The Centennial Meditation of Columbia. 1776-1876. A Cantata.
<Musical Annotations, in angled brackets, precede each section.>
<Full chorus: sober, measured and yet majestic progressions of chords.>