Souls And Rain-Drops -- Sidney Lanier

Guest poem submitted by Hita Adwanikar:

(Poem #1490) Souls And Rain-Drops Light rain-drops fall and wrinkle the sea, Then vanish, and die utterly. One would not know that rain-drops fell If the round sea-wrinkles did not tell. So souls come down and wrinkle life And vanish in the flesh-sea strife. One might not know that souls had place Were't not for the wrinkles in life's face. -- Sidney Lanier

The transience of life is a great theme -- and I would like to suggest
my favourite poem about it. 'Sea-wrinkles' have now found a place in my
vocabulary.

Sidney Lanier was born at Macon, Ga., on the third of February, 1842.
His earliest passion was for music. As a child he learned to play,
almost without instruction, on every kind of instrument he could find. A
precocious musical talent, Lanier was drawn to philosophy and Romantic
poetry, but he postponed his intentions for further study to volunteer
for Confederate Civil War duty. In the years that followed, Lanier
worked in Georgia, Alabama and Texas as a tutor, teacher, and law clerk
while writing poetry and Tiger-Lillies, his novel of the war. Towards
the end of his life, Lanier suffered from a crippling case of
tuberculosis that eventually killed him at the age of 39.

Hita.