Song of the Chattahoochee by Sidney Lanier
"Song of the Chattahoochee" by Sidney Lanier is a lyrical poem that narrates the journey of the Chattahoochee River from its source in northeast Georgia to its ultimate destination at the Gulf of Mexico. Through five stanzas of ten lines each, Lanier personifies the river, exploring themes of natural beauty, the challenges of progress, and the responsibilities of humanity. The poem vividly describes the topographical features and diverse plant life that both hinder and entice the river on its course, capturing the essence of the Southern landscape. Lanier employs a musical structure, with a consistent end rhyme scheme, rhythmic devices, and refrains that enhance the auditory experience of the poem. The river's path, filled with both obstacles and allure, symbolizes the broader journey of life and duty. Ultimately, Lanier's work reflects his background as a musician, blending sound and meaning to create a compelling narrative that resonates with both nature and human experience. This blend of musicality and vivid imagery makes "Song of the Chattahoochee" a significant piece in American poetry, inviting readers to reflect on their connection to the natural world.
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Song of the Chattahoochee by Sidney Lanier
First published: 1884, in Poems of Sidney Lanier
Type of poem: Lyric
The Poem
Within the framework of five stanzas of ten lines each, Sidney Lanier’s “Song of the Chattahoochee” takes the reader on a river journey from the mountains to the sea. Essentially, the poem foretells the 436-mile route of the Chattahoochee River as it rises in Habersham County in northeast Georgia to flow southwest diagonally across the state to form Georgia’s western boundary with Alabama before crossing into Florida and eventually spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. The poem draws parallels between the gravitational momentum of the river and the social, creative, and spiritual responsibilities of humankind.
Told from the perspective of the river itself, the poem begins in the higher elevations of Habersham and Hall, both counties in northeast Georgia. It is here that the river’s source can be traced and here that the river acquires its impetus “to reach the plain.” Already in the first stanza, however, there are topographical impediments to the river’s motion: steep heights, rock-strewn beds, and narrow banks.
The middle three stanzas serve to add to these topographical obstructions a host of organic distractions, all aimed at inducing the river to delay its journey. The second stanza, for example, is populated by water vegetation such as rushes, reeds, and “willful waterweeds” as well as shoreside vegetation like the “laving laurel” and “fondling grass.” All combine forces to convince the river to “Abide, abide” and not continue on its course.
These humble plants are joined, in the third stanza, by majestic, “overleaning” trees that hope to slow the river’s progress by offering the comfort of shade. This is surely a strong inducement when one considers the vibrant heat of the American South. Here, Lanier, a Georgian by birth, offers a catalog of his state’s native trees: hickory, poplar, chestnut, oak, walnut, and pine. With “flickering meaning and sign,” a language of dappled sun and shadow, the trees add their message to “pass not” the hills and valleys of northern Georgia.
To the voices of the plant life in the second and third stanzas, Lanier, in turn, adds a further distraction in the fourth stanza: the river stones that serve not only to “bar” the river’s passage but also to act as “lures” because of their light-reflecting surfaces. Among these “luminous” precious stones in the watery depths are white quartz, ruby, garnet, and amethyst.
The sea calls to the river more loudly than the voices of Habersham and Hall Counties, and it reminds the river of its ultimate goal, which is outlined in the fifth and final stanza. The sea’s voice is the voice of duty. This obligation to reach the state’s lower elevations apparently has four objectives: providing irrigation to parched crops, turning waterwheels as a power source for gristmills or factories, nourishing flowers, and eventually joining the sea.
Forms and Devices
As evidenced by his 1880 volume The Science of English Verse, Lanier was long interested in the relationship between music and poetry. This is not surprising, since he made a living as a professional musician (first flutist of the Peabody Orchestra in Baltimore, Maryland) and composer before he published his first poem. Once he took up the pen, as both theorist and practitioner, he experimented with verbal materials in order to achieve the auditory effect of music in his writing.
In its basic form, “Song of the Chattahoochee” is lyrical. All five stanzas of ten lines each follow the same scheme of end rhyme: abcbcddcab. Furthermore, each stanza begins and ends with a two-line refrain.
Some critics have argued that the essence of Lanier’s verse lies not in the sense but in the sound. Certainly “Song of the Chattahoochee” derives most of its interest from the poet’s ability to mimic the sound of the river and its course. In this regard, there are two countervailing clusters of poetic devices. On the one hand, there are effects that are used to establish and maintain momentum; on the other hand, there are devices used to slow the rhythm of the poem.
In the first category are those devices that Lanier uses to mirror the river’s fundamental propulsion. His use of internal and end rhyme, repetition, action verbs, long prepositional phrases, consonantal alliteration (“Run the rapid” in line 4 and “flee from folly” in line 7), and enjambment or run-on lines (lines 7 and 8) gives the poem a forward momentum.
These effects are subtly augmented by the poet’s skillful manipulation of the refrain. Regardless of minor variations in each iteration, the first line, ending in “hills of Habersham,” is always one word longer than the second line, ending in “valleys of Hall.” This slight reduction in length from one line to the next in the refrain gives additional momentum to the poem as a whole. Furthermore, there are three instances, in the first, third, and fifth stanzas, when the eighth line of the stanza text overlaps the first line of the refrain, thus mirroring how the river flows into the sea.
In contrast to these elements that promote fluidity of line, Lanier employs a number of devices to imitate the impediments that the river must counter on its journey to the sea. These include caesuras or medial breaks, as in line 33 (“The white quartz shone, and the smooth brook-stone”) and the use of long vowels as in the two-word plea of the rushes and reeds in the second stanza: “Abide, abide.” The end result of all of Lanier’s effort is a poem created for the ears, one that is meant to be read aloud.