“The Marshes of Glynn” is one of Sidney Lanier’s most famous poems. It is part of a set of lyrical nature poems that interpret the beauty and meaning of the open salt marshes of Glynn County in coastal Georgia. Brunswick is the seat of this county, named after John Glynn, a member of the British House of Commons who defended the cause of the American colonies before the Revolution. The Battle of Bloody Marsh was also fought in this very area thirty years earlier, when Britain defeated Spain and created the Province of Georgia. At the close of the American Civil War, Lanier was inspired to write “The Marshes of Glynn.” These marshes that line the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway as it flows between the mainland and Georgia’s barrier islands are known as tidal marshes, and are flooded daily by Atlantic Ocean tides. Salt marshes such as the one in this image play a major role in supporting wildlife and providing coastal protection. This incongruous scene of hundreds of water birds feeding at the edge of a tidal marsh just south of Brunswick echoes the lyrical ideas found in Lanier’s poetry. The marsh grasses provide a striking yellow, orange, and green background for these feeders. The marsh is as rich in texture and color as it is in nutrients. It is also vulnerable to the commercial development. Lanier sought to comfort his Southern readers by showing them that while the South may have lost the Civil War, it still retained the expansive landscape full of beauty and richness which has always been the source of its strength. In the “Marshes of Glynn,” Lanier writes, “Look around you. Take courage from the land which God has given you, which always nourished you, and which is sill there, and be comforted.”