Selections from American poetry Part 49

Born at Cambridge, Ma.s.s., he early showed a love of literature and says that while he was a student at Harvard he read everything except the prescribed textbooks. He opened a law office in Boston, but spent his time largely in reading and writing poetry. He became professor of literature at Harvard in 1854 and later edited the Atlantic Monthly.

Later he was minister to Spain and to England. In 1885 he returned to his work at Harvard, where he remained until his death in the very house in which he was born.

The poems by Lowell are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of his works.

HAKON's LAY

This poem is here given in its original form as published by Lowell in Graham's Magazine in January, 1855. It was afterwards expanded into the second canto of "The Voyage to Vinland."

With what other poems in this book may "Hakon's Lay" be compared?

3. Skald. See Longfellow, 'The Skeleton in Armor,' note on I. 19.

10. Hair and beard were both white, we are told. Who is suggested in this line as white?

17. eyried. An eagle builds its aerie or nest upon a crag or inaccessible height above ordinary birds. The simile here begun before the eagle is mentioned, and the minstrel's thoughts are spoken of as born in the aerie of his brain, high above his companions.

20. One of the finest pictures of the singing of a minstrel before his lord is found in Scott's "Waverly."

21. fletcher: arrow-maker.

31. The work of Fate cannot be done by a reed which is proverbially weak or by a stick which is cut cross-grained and hence will split easily.

She does not take her arrow at random from all the poor and weak weapons which life offers, but she chooses carefully.

35. sapwood: the new wood next the bark, which is not yet hardened.

37. Much of the value of an arrow lies in its being properly feathered.

So when Fate chooses, she removes all valueless feathers which will hinder success.

40. In these ways her aim Would be injured.

43. b.u.t.t's: target's.

52. frothy: trivial.

64. Leif, the son of Eric, near the end of the tenth century went from Greenland to Norway and was converted to Christianity. About 1000 he sailed southward and landed at what is perhaps now Newfoundland, then went on to some part of the New England coast and there spent the winter.

61. The coming of Leif Ericson with his brave s.h.i.+p to Vinland was the first happening in the story of America.

61. rune: a character in the ancient alphabet.

FLOWERS

"Flowers" is another very early poem, but it was included by Lowell in his first volume, "A Year's Life," in 1841. Compare this idea of a poet's duty and opportunity with that of other American writers.

12. Look up Matthew 13: 3-9.

18. Condensed expression; for some of that seed shall surely fall in such ground that it shall bloom forever.

THE SHEPHERD OF KING ADMETUS

16. viceroy: ruler in place of the king.

44. Apollo, while he was still young, killed one of the Cyclops of Zeus and Zeus condemned him to serve a mortal Man as a shepherd. He served Admetus, as is here described, and secured many special favors for him from the G.o.ds.

COMMEMORATION ODE

3. The men who fought for the cause they loved expressed their love in the forming of a squadron instead of a poem, and wrote their praise of battle in fighting-lines instead of tetrameters.

17. guerdon: reward.

36. A creed without defenders is lifeless. When to belief in a cause is added action in its behalf, the creed lives.

60. This is as life would be without live creeds and results that will endure. Compare Whittier's "Raphael."

67. aftermath: a second crop.

79. Baal's: belonging to the local deities of the ancient Semitic race.

105. With this stanza may well be compared "The Present Crisis."

113. dote: have the intellect weakened by age.

146. Plutarch's men. Plutarch wrote the lives of the greatest men of Greece and Rome.

THE VISION of SIR LAUNFAL (PRELUDE)

7. auroral: morning.

12. Sinais. Read Exodus, Chapter 19. Why did Moses climb Mount Sinai?

What would be the advantage to us if we knew when we climbed a Mount Sinai?

9-20. Wordsworth says:

"Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing boy," etc.

Lowell does not agree with him, and in these lines he declares that heaven is as near to the aged man as to the child, since the skies, the winds, the wood, and the sea have lessons for us always.

28. bubbles: things as useless and perishable as the child's soap-bubbles.

20-32. The great contrast! What does Lowell mean by Earth? Does he define it? Which does he love better?

79. Notice how details are acc.u.mulated to prove the hightide. Are his points definite?