Lanier's Oak: The Tree That Inspired Poetry

This story originally appeared in Discover Downtown Brunswick, a publication of The Brunswick News, in the May 2023 edition. Josh Dukes is the author of Brunswick Past & Present, available now from Arcadia Publishing.

Brunswick locals and visitors alike are familiar with The Lover’s Oak, our famously romantic Albany Street treasure. It’s the subject of legend and has been photographed countlessly over the decades.  Just a few blocks up the same street sits the Henry C. Day House, where Day’s brother-in-law Sidney Lanier frequently visited.  These visits gave rise to another legendary tree – one that you’ll miss if you blink while driving along US 17 today.  Read on for a reason to stop and visit the inspirational spot yourself.

Sidney Lanier.
Portrait colorized by Josh Dukes

Sidney Lanier was not from Brunswick, but he fell in love with the place.  He married Mary Day in Macon, his hometown, in 1867.  Mary and her father Charles had fled the fighting at Brunswick during the Civil War, finding a temporary home in Macon.  Charles Day had vast land and warehouse holdings in Brunswick and entrusted Lanier to handle some of his business affairs in the area.  Lanier visited his wife’s family several times in Brunswick - for business, for pleasure, and sometimes for health.  Lanier’s lungs had been badly damaged by Tuberculosis, which he contracted in a military prison during his time in the Confederacy. Brunswick’s salt air and humidity greatly helped with his breathing when his health lapsed.  It was in the 1870s on one of these visits when he was inspired by a tree with a view to write “The Marshes of Glynn.”

On a visit with his brother-in-law Henry Day in 1874 or 1875, Lanier was out having a drink one evening when he ran into Urbanus Dart’s son, Jacob Henry “Jake” Dart.  Years later, Dart recounted his meeting in a newspaper article:

“Passing by this store [G. Friedlander Emporium, Gloucester at Newcastle], one night I heard a flute… Going in I saw Sidney Lanier, leaning against the counter.  After a few minutes he asked me to take a walk.  Gloucester Street was then a mere roadway.  Passing to the foot of the street at what was then known as ‘The Back Landing,’ we continued our walk until we reached the oak nearly in front of the residence of the late John B. Dart [Jake’s brother].  Lanier said, ‘let us stop here.’ We both sat upon its roots in silent reverie. After a while…[Lanier] arose, and pointing across the water he exclaimed, ‘How marvelous, how wonderfully beautiful the sinuous marshes of Glynn.’ On our way back we parted in front of the Day house… I saw him no more.”

Lanier's Oak as it looked in Sidney Lanier's Day
Photo circa 1900 by Charles Tait, colorized by Josh Dukes

Lanier returned to the same tree many times to write, cementing its legacy as Lanier’s Oak.  Sidney Lanier died of his affliction in 1881, only 2 years after the first publication of “The Marshes of Glynn.” He was 39.

In the 1910s and 1920s, William Robert Dart ran an over-the-water structure called Lanier’s Bathhouse, which operated next to the tree.  The first permanent monument to the tree was placed in May of 1932. It was bronze and the inscription included part of the poem.

Helen Keller visits Lanier's Oak, 1933
Photo colorized by Josh Dukes

On March 15^th, 1933, Helen Keller and her long-time teacher Annie Sullivan were delighted to visit the tree on a stop through Brunswick.  Keller was tracked down by a news reporter that day as she was departing for Savannah.  She mentioned her love for the poet Sidney Lanier, unaware of his connection to the area. When the reporter told her through an interpreter that she was only a mile from the very tree where Lanier wrote the Marshes of Glynn, her face lit up and she requested a visit and a photographer to take her picture. She wrapped her arms around the tree and recited several lines from the Marshes of Glynn and parts of other poems by Lanier.  “As I stand here and feel the tree and get the breath of the marshes, I am greatly inspired,” she said. 

Lanier's Oak as it looks today
Photo by Josh Dukes

In 1952, final approvals were obtained to push the marsh further from the tree. US 17 was widened to
four lanes, straddling Lanier’s Oak on either side. Fortunately, good judgement prevailed to protect the tree in its new home. Proper markings and even dedicated parking spaces are available today for visitors.  I suggest you stop for a visit (early morning is a quiet time).  Touch the tree yourself, then visit the nearby Marshes of Glynn Overlook Park to take in the original vista – one so beautiful it inspired a poet to write,

“Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and the terminal sea? Somehow my soul seems suddenly free,
From the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin, By the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn.”

Information sourced from “When Poet Sidney Lanier Made the Marshes of Glynn Famous” by Tyler Bagwell.  Helen Keller account from The Brunswick News, March 15, 1933.