| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | September 7 | | Sidney Lanier | | By William Hamilton Hayne (1856–1929) |
| | (Died September 7, 1882)
LIFE’S fragile bonds united | |
| By fine-spun webs of breath, | |
| Scarce quivered ’neath the mystic stroke— | |
| The unsheathed sword of Death! | |
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| O poet, preen thy pinions! | 5 |
| Soar through Faith’s radiant pass; | |
| The mists of pain fade from thy soul, | |
| As frost-films from a glass. | |
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| Thy worn, white body slumbers, | |
| Dreamless in Death’s dark keep:— | 10 |
| The drawbridge crossed, thy spirit feels | |
| No lethargy of sleep…. | |
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| O Music, mother of soft sounds, | |
| Let not thy tongue be mute! | |
| For he, through silver lips, evoked | 15 |
| The language of the flute. | |
| |
| And Nature, though her voice is dumb, | |
| Through dew-draped blades of corn, | |
| Shall shed, ’mid Southern fields of grain, | |
| Memorial tears at morn. | 20 | | | |
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