Since April is National Poetry Month, it is the perfect time to explore the local legacy of Sidney Lanier, a Georgia-born poet who portrayed our area as “a world of marsh that borders a world of sea.” In the 1870s, a visit to Coastal Georgia inspired one of Lanier’s most famous poems, “The Marshes of Glynn.” It was first published in A Masque of Poets, a compilation of nearly 70 works by then-unknown authors like Lanier, Emily Dickinson, and Louisa May Alcott. Originally a modest success, the poem later took on a new life its author would never see. Lanier died of tuberculosis in 1881, just three years after the publication of “The Marshes of Glynn.” Soon, the poem would come to symbolize not only its author, but also our area’s pride in its natural beauty and historical significance.
Coastal Georgia Historical Society
This glass lantern slide from the Margaret Davis Cate Collection shows Lanier's Oak with the original small historical marker in the foreground.
Widespread recognition of Lanier and his work’s legacy in Coastal Georgia began in the early twentieth century. Along the Coastal Highway—today’s U.S. Route 17—near downtown Brunswick, one tree was so often identified with the poet that it earned the name Lanier’s Oak. This, it was said, was the tree under which Lanier sat to compose his now renowned poem. For many who traveled through the area, the tree’s fame was strong enough to warrant a stop to catch their own glimpse of the “Marshes of Glynn.” The Georgia Historical Society erected a historical marker for Lanier’s Oak in 1956, but an earlier, smaller marker still stands closer to the tree in the median of U.S. 17.
Lanier’s Oak was not the only commemoration of the poet in Glynn County. The Sidney Lanier Building, a former elementary school built in 1936, was incorporated into the campus of Glynn Academy in the 1970s. The notoriety that Lanier’s poem brought to the “Marshes of Glynn” also helped protect the marshes, perhaps most notably in the 1950s, when plans to fill parts of them emerged but were quickly thwarted. The most visible tribute to Sidney Lanier and his connection to Glynn County is likely the Sidney Lanier Bridge. Both the current bridge and its predecessor were named for Lanier, overlooking the very marshes that his poetry made famous.
Coastal Georgia Historical Society
A postcard showing an aerial view of the original Sidney Lanier Bridge, a vertical lift bridge completed in 1956 and replaced by today's suspension bridge in 2003.
This month’s featured images from the Coastal Georgia Historical Society include a postcard showing an aerial view of the original Sidney Lanier Bridge, a vertical lift bridge completed in 1956 and replaced by today’s suspension bridge in 2003. The other image, a glass lantern slide from the Margaret Davis Cate Collection, shows Lanier’s Oak with the original small historical marker in the foreground.
The Coastal Georgia Historical Society presents this article and images from our archives as part of our mission “to connect people to Coastal Georgia’s dynamic history.” The Society operates the iconic St. Simons Lighthouse Museum and the World War II Home Front Museum, housed in the Historic Coast Guard Station at East Beach. To learn more about the Society, its museums, diverse programs, and membership, please visit coastalgeorgiahistory.org.
