For my appreciation of this tribute to the poet's wife
see `Introduction', p. xxxv [Part III]. Mr. Lanier's estimate is given
in a letter of March, 1874, quoted in Mrs. Lanier's introductory note:
"Of course, since I have written it to print I cannot make it such
as _I_ desire in artistic design: for the forms of to-day
require a certain trim smugness and clean-shaven propriety
in the face and dress of a poem, and I must win a hearing
by conforming in some degree to these tyrannies, with a view
to overturning them in the future. Written so, it is not nearly so beautiful
as I would have it; and I therefore have another still in my heart,
which I will some day write for myself."
Other tributes to his wife are: `In Absence', `Acknowledgment',
`Laus Mariae', `Special Pleading', `Evening Song', `Thou and I',
`One in Two', and `Two in One'; while she is referred to
in `The Hard Times in Elfland' and `June Dreams in January'.
It will be interesting to compare `My Springs' with other poems on the eyes.
Among the most noteworthy* may be cited Shakespeare's
"And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights that do mislead the morn;"