Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/565

* LOWELL. 501 LOWELL. university, but. though he finished the course, he found the study of law .so uncongenial that he never seriously practiced the profession. His bent was literary. In 1841 he publi:,hed his first volume of poems, A Year's Life. This was fol- lowed, in 1844, by a collection of poems, including the "Legend of Brittanj-." and other academic pieces in the style of Keats. The same year he married ilaria White, of Watertown, Mass. (see below), whose high character and earnestness quickened his own humanity, and led him to use his pen in the service of good movements. In 1846 he printed in the Boston f'otirier the first of the Birjloir Papers, published in book form in 1848, a series of satirical poems directed against the Mexican War. The Yankee dialect verse became immediately popular, and Lowell began to win wide recognition. Besides his poems he had already published Conversations on Some of the Old Poets (184.3), a series somewhat an- tique in form, but displaying an unusual amount of critical ability. In 1848 he increased his repu- tation by "A Fable for Critics" (anonymously published), a rambling poem, full of brilliant wit and striking puns, and also keen critical judgments of contemporary writers then just rising into fame, such as Emerson. Hawthorne, Poe, and others. The same year appeared a vol- ume of miscellaneous poems, and also what is probably the most popular of his more academic [lieces, "The Vision of Sir Launfal."' The period of his best prose work began about 185.5, the year when he was appointed to succeed Longfellow as Smith professor of modern lan- guages at Harvard College, a position which he held till 1877. In 1857 he married his second wife, the accomplished Miss Frances Dunlop. of Portland. The same year he became editor of the Atlantic ilonthh/. a post which he held until 1862. From 1864 to 1872 he was joint editor of the Xorth American Rerieir. In the pages of these magazines many of his best literary and critical essays appeared. They were printed in book form in Fireside Travels (1864). a series of de- scriptive and reminiscent sketches; Among My Books (1870) : .)/(/ Stud;/ Windows (1871) : and the second series of Among My Books (1876). Meanwhile Lowell continued writing poetiT. From 1862 to 1866 The Atlantic published the second series of the Biglow Papers ( book form. 1867). directed against the slavery party of the Civil War. In 1865 he delivered, at the memorial services in honor of Harvard students and grad- uates who had fallen in the war. his "Commem- oration Ode." his most dignified and serious poem, considered by many one of the best Ameri- can poems. Other volumes of verse were Under the Willoiis (1869) : The Cathedral (1870) : and Three Memorial Poems, the last named contain- ing the famous tributes to Lincoln. Washington, and America that make Lowell the most conspicu- ous poet of American patriotism (1877). In 1877 Lowell was appointed Minister to Madrid by President Hayes, and in 1880 was transferred to London, where he served with dis- tinction till 1885. While in England he delivered several admirable speeches, which were published later as Democracy, and Other Addresses (1887). In 1888 appeared his last volume of verse. Heartsease and Rue. and the same year a volume of Political Essays. The year after his death the ten volumes of his revised and complete works were supplemented by his Latest Literary Essays and Addresses, and by a series of lectures which he had delivered in Bo"ston in 1887, called The Old English Dramatists, both edited by Charles Eliot Norton. In addition to the volumes enumerated, Lowell edited the works of .several English poets, as Keats (1854); Wordsworth (1854); Shelley (1857); and Donne (published 1895); he also edited, among other prose writings, the Compleat Anjr'er of Walton (1889). Lowell appears in American life and letters in many rijles. He is a poet, a critic, an es.say- ist, a public speaker, a diplomat. His poetry is varied and uneven. His earlier verse is often imitative, academic, and .sentimental. Much of his later work is more serious in spirit and more genuine in feeling, yet often phrased in verse presenting much the same appearance of uneven- ness. The explanation is that most of Lowell's verses, aside from the rather conventional poems of sentiment, were written for immediate effect, as with a view to reform, and the native weapons of abundant humor, a rich and varied vocabu- lary, and a wealth of imagerj- made a rapid, un- studied expression Ijest suited to his purposes, and rendered him most effective with his read- ers. As a poet, he is essentially vigorous, richly endowed with wit and humor, writing with very little conscious artistic sense. He is indeed one of the foremost of American poets, but he gains his place and reputation, not by the artistic and agreeable phrasing of common sentiments dear to the heart of the people, as Longfellow; nor as Emerson, by depth and isolation: nor as Poe. by unrivaled sense of form : nnr as Bryant, by dignity: nor as Whittier. by fervor: but through the native vigor of his expression, and the sound common sense of his ideas. He has produced some of the best verse that has ap- peared from the hand of any distinguished American, and he has also produced some of the worst. Among the most even and excellent of his poems are "The Vision of Sir Launfal." "She Came and Went." "The First Snowfall." "After the Burial." and the '"Commemoration Ode." Among the most characteristically humorous are some of the verses from the Biglow Papers, as "The Courtin'."' and "A Fable for Oritics." and "In the Half-Way House." L'ndoubtedly the most original and effective poetry he ever wrote is to be found in the Bigloir Papers, which com- bine shrewd satire and sound political judgment and hearty patriotism to an extent rarely paral- leled in literature. The Memorial Poems, though less racy and original, are scarcely less effective. Lowell is probably better known as a prose writer than as a poet. His prose groups itself mainly in the three classes of critical essays, descriptive and reminiscent sketches, and polit- ical lectures and aildresses. As a critic Lowell had in his day no serious rival among his coun- trymen. He was a man of wide and thorough reading, and in the course of his life became acquainted with all that is best in the literatures of EuroiK". His wide reading was supplemented by an excellent memory and by a genuine enthusiasm for literature. His work as a critic came at a time in the history of American letters when deeper interest was awakening in art and scholarship. Longfellow had previously done a great service to his country by arousing it to an appreciation of the beauty and the traditions of Europe.