North from Jacksonville, the marshes between the road and the sea, were the inspiration for a holy poem of which we should be familiar. It was written by Sidney Lanier after the Civil War. As an officer for the South he took on tuberculosis that early ended his life.
In an effort at accepting an early death, Sidney wandered
down the edge of the marshes in Glynn County. In the following lines we see how
he came to see the marshes as a copy of Jesus who accepted his fate.
Ye marshes, how candid
and simple and nothing withholding and free,
Ye publlsh yourselves
to the sky, and offer yourself to the sea.
Tolerant plains that
suffer the sea and the rains and the sun.
He next sees the marshes as a symbol for God, “In whom we
live, and move and have our being.”
“As the marsh hen
secretly builds on the watery sod,
Behold I will build me
a nest on the greatness of God.”
“By so many roots as
the marsh grass sends in the sod,
I will heartedly lay
me a hold on the greatness of God.”
In the closing lines of his poem Sidney compared the way the
tides fill the marshes to the way God sends soothing sleep into the hearts of
men.
“Who will reveal to
our waking ken the forms that swim
And the shapes under
the waters of sleep?
I would I could know
what swimmeth below when the tide comes in,
On the length and the
breadth of the marvelous marshes of Glynn.”
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