SOURCE: De Bellis, Jack. “Southern Knight-Errant: Chivalry in the Early Poetry.” In Sidney Lanier, pp. 32-45. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1972.

In the following excerpt, De Bellis examines Lanier's use of the chivalric tradition in his work, utilizing his novel Tiger-Lilies and the unfinished poem “The Jaquerie” as examples. The critic believes this tradition offered the young poet models in symbolism, setting, and morality which complemented another of his influences—the Southern literary tradition.

I “sir Walter Scottism”

William Gilmore Simms thought Southern literature “need not feel ashamed” of Tiger-Lilies.¹ Had he realized what significance it had to the development of the South's most important nineteenth-century poet, he might have insisted that it was a novel to be proud of—even if Tiger-Lilies could not rival Northerner John De Forest's Miss Ravenel's Conversion as a straight war novel. Lanier's narrative impulse was obviously severely strained by his many...