Editing Sidney Lanier (section)

==Writing style and literary theory==
A poet who connected musical notation with poetic meter, he was described by C.K. Williams as "a deft metrical technician",.<ref>C. K. Williams,  ''Poets on Poets'' Carcanet Press, Manchester, 1997 {{ISBN|9781857543391}}, p.436</ref> He developed a unique style of poetry written in [[Meter (poetry)|logaoedic dactyl]]s, which was heavily influenced by the works of Anglo-Saxon poets.  He wrote several of his greatest poems in this meter, including "Revenge of Hamish" (1878), "The Marshes of Glynn" and "Sunrise". In Lanier's hands, the logaoedic dactylic meter led to a free-form, almost prose-like style of poetry that was greatly admired by [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]], [[Bayard Taylor]], [[Charlotte Cushman]], and other poets and critics of the day. The "sprung verse" metrical system developed by [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]] at about the same time superficially resembles Lanier's practice but shows no influence (and there is no evidence that they knew each other or that either had read any of the other's works).

Lanier also published essays on literary and musical topics. He edited a notable series of four [[abridgement]]s, published by [[Charles Scribner's Sons]], of literary works about [[knight]]ly combat and [[chivalry]] in modernized language more appealing to the boys of his day:
*''The Boy's Froissart'' (1879), a retelling of [[Jean Froissart]]'s ''[[Froissart's Chronicles]]'', which tell of adventure, battle and custom in medieval "England, France, Spain, etc."<ref name="Lanier 1879">{{cite book |editor-last1= Lanier |editor-first1= Sidney |editor1-link=Sidney Lanier |date= 1879 |title= The Boy's Froissart being Sir John Froissart's Chronicles of Adventure, Battle, and Custom in England, France, Spain, etc. |url= https://archive.org/details/boysfroissartbei02froi/page/n9/mode/2up 
|location= New York |publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons}}</ref>
*''[[The Boy's King Arthur]]'' (1880), based on [[Sir Thomas Malory]]'s compilation of the legends of [[King Arthur]] and the [[Knights of the Round Table]].<ref name="Lanier 1880">{{cite book |editor-last1= Lanier |editor-first1= Sidney |editor1-link=Sidney Lanier |date= 1880 |title = The Boy's King Arthur being Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table |url = https://archive.org/details/boyskingarthurbe00lani/page/n5/mode/2up |location= New York |publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons}}</ref>
*''The Boy's Mabinogion'' (1881), based on the early Welsh legends of King Arthur, as retold in the ''[[Red Book of Hergest]]''.<ref name="Lanier 1881">{{cite book |editor-last1= Lanier |editor-first1= Sidney |editor1-link=Sidney Lanier |date= 1881 |title= The Boy's Mabinogion being The Earliest Welsh Tales of King Arthur in the Famous Red Book of Hergest |url= https://archive.org/details/boysmabinogionbe00lani/page/n7/mode/2up |location= New York |publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons}}</ref>
*''The Boy's Percy'' (published posthumously in 1882), consisting of old ballads of war, adventure and love based on [[Thomas Percy (Bishop of Dromore)|Bishop Thomas Percy]]'s ''[[Reliques of Ancient English Poetry]]''.<ref name="Lanie 1882">{{cite book |editor-last1= Lanier |editor-first1= Sidney |editor1-link=Sidney Lanier |date= 1882 |title= The Boy's Percy being Old Ballads of War, Adventure and Love from Bishop Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry |url= https://archive.org/details/boyspercybeingol00perc/page/n7/mode/2up |location= New York |publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons}}</ref>

He also wrote two travelogues that were widely read at the time, entitled [https://archive.org/details/floridaitsscene00lanigoog/page/n9 ''Florida: Its Scenery, Climate and History''] (1875) and ''Sketches of [[India]]'' (1876) (although he never visited India).