Documenting the American South

Monument Name

Sidney Lanier Death Place, Tyron

Type

Marker

Subjects

Historic Cultural Figures

City

Tryon

County

Polk

Description

A pillar standing roughly eight feet tall made of local rocks holds two bronze plaques. The plaques are unadorned other than the inscriptions. The larger top plaque holds the main inscription and the smaller lower plaque contains dedication information. The memorial stands in front of the house where Lanier died in 1881.

Images: Side view | View of the memorial and the house | Plaques

Inscription

Front, top: HERE / SIDNEY LANIER / BELOVED POET OF THE SOUTH / PASSED ON SEPTEMBER 7, 1881

“NIGHT SLIPPED TO DAWN AND PAIN MERGED INTO BEAUTY / BRIGHT GREW THE ROAD HIS WEARY FEET HAD TROD, / HE GAVE HIS SALUTATION TO THE MORNING, / AND FOUND HIMSELF BEFORE THE FACE OF GOD.” / ELIA W. PEATTIE

Front, bottom: TABLET ELECTED / 1930 / MRS. H.L. SHEIP / DAUGHTER OF / ROXANA LANIER ALLISON

Custodian

Private homeowner

Dedication Date

1930, sometime after early June

Decade

1930s

Geographic Coordinates

35.227460 , -82.236050 View in Geobrowse

Supporting Sources

Lanier, Sidney. Poems of Sidney Lanier, Edited by his Wife, (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1884.) From Documenting the American South, http://docsouth.unc.edu, (accessed June 16, 2016) Link

Lanier, Sidney. Tiger-Lilies. A Novel, (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867.) From Documenting the American South, docsouth.unc.edu, (accessed June 16, 2016) Link

North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. “Georgia Poet Sidney Lanier Died in Polk County,” This Day in North Carolina History, nchistorytoday.wordpress.com, (accessed June 9, 2016) Link

“Death Of Southern Poet Recalled,” The High Point Enterprise (High Point, NC), December 18, 1960

“Sidney Lanier,” Poets.org, (accessed June 9, 2016) Link

“Tablet To Mark Place Where Sidney Lanier Died,” The Burlington Hawk-Eye (Burlington, Iowa), June 4, 1930

Public Site

No

Materials & Techniques

Bronze, local stone

Sponsors

Mrs. H.L. Sheip

Monument Dedication and Unveiling

Mrs. H.L. Sheip, a relative of Sidney Lanier and the memorial’s donor, was scheduled to present the plaque. The Rev. Clarence Stuart McClellan, Jr., the creator of the “Open-Air Westminster of the South,” in Fletcher was scheduled to be the master of ceremonies.

Subject Notes

Sidney Lanier was also immortalized in stone at the Duke Chapel in Durham, NC as one of the three “Great Men of the South.” He was a widely acclaimed poet, musician and author. Originally from Georgia, he spent many of the Civil War years in North Carolina before being captured in 1864 while serving on a blockade runner. He acquired tuberculosis in 1865 and finally succumbed to the disease in 1881 shortly after moving to Lynn near Tyron in Polk County, NC. An earlier memorial to Lanier had been dedicated in the “Open-Air Westminster of the South” in Fletcher in 1928.

Location

The memorial is located at 2753 Lynn Road, Tyron, NC. It stands in the lawn of a private residence. There is no room to pull off the highway in front of the house. A nearby church thrift store parking lot is a short walking distance away.

Landscape

The memorial markers stands on the front lawn of a private residence, under mature shady trees.