NOTES ON LOWELL'S WRITINGS.

I. "The complete product of Lowell's genius, in verse and prose, is comparatively small. He wrote reluctantly, needing the spur of some great cause or occasion to arouse his best creative energies. He loved to indulge in literary lotus-eating, feasting his intellect, ripening and mellowing his thought through continued converse with other minds. When expression came it was the choicest essence, distilled from the lavish abundance of his knowledge. 'My eggs take long in hatching,' he says in a letter, "because I need to brood a good while.'". Abernethy's Literature.

2. The tender poems, She Came and Went, The Changeling, and The First Snow-fall, were written after the death of little Blanche, the poet's first-born. After the Burial was written after Mt. Auburn received little Rose.

3. Under the Willows, which appeared in 1869, contained many of the poet's best poems, among them being Sunthin' in a Pastoral Line, Winter Evening Hymn to My Fire, Auf Wiedersehen, Palinode, and In the Twilight. Heartsease and Rue, which appeared in 1888, contained his great memorial elegy, Agassiz, which critics have considered fitting to place beside Milton's Lycidas. 4. Lowell's most exalted verse is contained in his four patriotic odes,-Commemoration Ode, written in memory of the sons of Harvard who perished in the Civil War, and containing a matchless tribute to Lincoln; Concord, The Fourth of July, and Under the Old Elm, containing a beautiful tribute to Washington.

5. In order to appreciate Rhoecus one should familiarize himself with the exquisite myths about nymphs and naiads, and consider as fully as possible the Greek deities associated with objects of nature. A large amount of mediæval legend and mythology also enters into the composition of The Vision of Sir Launfal and The Fable for Critics.

6. Lowell had a deep and genuine love of nature. He once wrote: "I think nature grows more and more beautiful and companionable as one grows older, and the earth more motherly-tender to one who will ask to sleep in her lap so soon." The writings nearest to Nature's heart are My Garden Acquaintance, An Invitation, An Indian Summer Reverie, Pictures from Appledore, the sonnet L'Envoi, Al Fresco, and parts of The Vision of Sir Launfal.

THE FIRST SNOW-FALL.

The snow had begun in the gloaming,
And busily all the night.

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Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white.

Every pine and fir and hemlock

Wore ermine too dear for an earl, And the poorest twig on the elm tree Was ridged inch deep with pearl.

From sheds new roofed with Carrara

Came Chanticleer's muffled crow,

The stiff rails were softened to swan's down,
And still fluttered down the snow.

I stood and watched by the window
The noiseless work of the sky,
And the sudden flurries of snow-birds,
Like brown leaves whirling by.

I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn,
Where a little headstone stood;
How the flakes were folding it gently,
As did robins the babes in the wood.

Up spoke our little Mable,

Saying, "Father, who makes it snow?" And I told of the good All-Father

Who cares for us here below.

Again I looked at the snow-fall,

And thought of the leaden sky
That arched o'er our first great sorrow,
When that mound was heaped so high.

I remembered the gradual patience
That fell from that cloud like snow,

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3

5

7

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Flake by flake, healing and hiding
The scar of our deep-plunged woe.

And again to the child I whispered,
"The snow that husheth all,
Darling, the merciful father

Alone can make it fall!"

Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her,
And she, kissing back, could not know
That my kiss was given her sister,
Folded close under deepening snow.

DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY.

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I. Commit the poem to memory. Explain the figure of speech in the second stanza. Also, Carrara, Chanticleer's, Auburn, The scar of our deepplunged woe, sudden flurries of snow-birds, noiseless work of the sky; the leaden sky that arched o'er our first great sorrow, etc.

II. Paraphrase the poem. Show the analogy between the cloud of the poet's sorrow and the leaden sky. III. What instance inspired this poem?

IV. Divide the poem into description and theme. Make a list of the expressions used to name snow.

V. Select similes and metaphors.

THE HERITAGE.

The rich man's son inherits lands,

And piles of brick, and stone, and gold,

And he inherits soft white hands,
And tender flesh that fears the cold,

Nor dares to wear a garment old;

A heritage it seems to me,

One scarce would wish to hold in fee.
The rich man's son inherits cares;
The bank may break, the factory burn,
A breath may burst his bubble shares,
And soft, white hands could hardly earn
A living that would serve his turn;
A heritage, it seems to me,

One scarce would wish to hold in fee.

The rich man's son inherits wants,
His stomach craves for dainty fare;
With sated heart he hears the pants
Of toiling hinds with brown arms bare,
And wearies in his easy chair;

A heritage it seems to me,

One scarce would wish to hold in fee.

What doth the poor man's son inherit?
Stout muscles and a sinewy heart,
A hardy frame, a hardier spirit;
King of two hands, he does his part
In every useful toil and art;
A heritage, it seems to me,

A king might wish to hold in fee.

What doth the poor man's son inherit?
Wishes o'erjoyed with humble things,
A rank adjudged by toil-worn merit,
Content that from employment springs,
A heart that in his labor sings;
A heritage, it seems to me,

A king might wish to hold in fee.