"And I would I could know what swimmeth below when the tide comes in/ On the length and breadth of the marvellous marshes of Glynn."
Sidney Lanier wrote these closing words to his haunting poem in 1878 and many Americans still learn them by heart.
A Southerner, made prisoner during the Civil War and never in good health again, Lanier became a leading voice in a time of defeat and an influence on later Southern writers like
William Faulkner and his distant relative
Thomas Lanier (Tennessee) Williams. Roberta Berke presents a portrait of Lanier though his letters, read by John Guerrassio , his lyrical poem, read by William Hope and his own flute music, played by Nancy Hadden. The dramatised prelude is performed by Oona Beeson , Teresa Gallagher and Dominic Letts.
Producer Piers Plowright