In 1855, Mr. Lowell succeeded Longfellow as Professor of Modern Languages and Belles-Lettres in Harvard College, and in order to qualify himself more fully for the duties of the position he went immediately to Europe, spending a year in study, chiefly in Dresden.

In 1857 he became editor of the Atlantic Monthly, and retained the position up to 1862. In 1863, in conjunction with Charles E. Norton, he assumed the editorship of the North American Review, retaining charge until 1872, when he again visited Europe, returning in 1874.

In addition to the works mentioned, some of Lowell's other chief poems are Under the Willows, Melibaus Hipponax, The Cathedral, and his Commemoration Ode. Two of his chief prose writings are Among my Books and My Study-Windows, both issued in 1870.

Both of the English Universities have conferred degrees on Mr. Lowell-Oxford, that of D. C. L. in 1873; and Cambridge, that of LL.D. in 1874.

Mr. Lowell was for several years minister-plenipotentiary to Spain, whence he was called to fill the same office in England.

He is without doubt the most polished and scholarly of American writers, succeeding equally well in both prose and poetry. As an essayist and critic he certainly has no superior, if, indeed, an equal, in the age he represents.

CRITICISM.

PROBABLY no writer in either America or Europe has ocen so versatile in style as Lowell. He seems equally facile in either prose or poetry. No one has the capacity of adapting his style so admirably to the picture he delineates. Almost every line evinces the keen knowledge of human nature and the great scholastic attainments of this writer. In his Biglow Papers we have

humor racy and sparkling. In his Vision of Sir Launfal we find delicacy and grace. In his Commemoration Ode he is grand. In his criticisms-and he has written much on both ancient and modern classic authors-he is fair and impartial. He seems to have the faculty of adapting not only his style, but also his very words, to the subject he discusses, in a way which characterizes no other writer of either ancient or modern times.

THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL.

NOTE.-The following extract is the prelude to Part First of The Vision of Sir Launfal, one of the best of Lowell's efforts as a poet. The poem appeared in 1848, and it has done much to establish the reputation of its author as one of the most scholarly of American poets.

OVER his keys the musing organist,

Beginning doubtfully and far away,
First lets his fingers wander as they list,

And builds a bridge from Dreamland for his lay.

Then, as the touch of his loved instrument

Gives hope and fervor, nearer draws his theme,
First guessed by faint auroral flushes sent

Along the wavering vista of his dream.

Not only around our infancy

Doth heaven with all its splendors lie;

ANALYSIS.-1-4. Is the sentence periodic or loose? Rewrite. 2. What does far modify?

list?

3 Give the mode and the tense of wander. The meaning of

4. What is the meaning of lay? What figure in the line?

5, 6. What is the leading clause ?

7. Explain the figure in this line.

7, 8. guessed, etc. What does the phrase modify?

8. What is the meaning of vista?

10. with all its splendors, etc. What does the phrase modify?

10

Earth gets its price for what earth gives us :
The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,

The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us,
We bargain for the graves we lie in ;

25

At the devil's booth are all things sold,
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay;
Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking;
"Tis Heaven alone that is given away,
'Tis only God may be had for the asking.
No price is set on the lavish summer;
June may be had by the poorest comer.

ANALYSIS.-12. Point out the figure in the line. What is the antecedent of it?

13-16. Are the clauses periodic or loose? Rewrite. What figure a these lines?

17-20. Point out the figure.

18. benedicite, a blessing.

19. Explain the line.

21-32. Mention the particulars expressed by the general statement. 22. What relative should be supplied?

23. who comes, etc. Is the clause restrictive or non-restrictive? 25. Give the meaning of devil's booth.

27. cap and bells. What is the meaning?

28. Name the figure in the line.

29. Parse the word alone. Name the modifier of it.

30. Supply the ellipsis, and name the modifier of it.

30

45

40

365

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays;
Whether we look or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,

An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,

Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;

Thrilling back over hills and valleys;

The flush of life may well be seen

The cowslip startles in meadows green,

The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice;
And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean
To be some happy creature's palace.

The little bird sits at his door in the sun,
Atilt like a blossom among the leaves,

And lets his illumined being o'errun

With the deluge of summer it receives;
His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,

And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,-

In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best?

ANALYSIS. 35. What is the antecedent of it?

36. Explain the line.

38. Give the mode and the tense of murmur and glisten.

40. In what case is instinct?

42. Explain the line.

43-45. Point out the figures.

Name the modifiers of instinct.

46. Change the figurative to plain language.

47. Explain the use of never.

49, 50. Point out the figure, and parse like and blossom.

50. Parse the word Atilt.

51. Parse o'errun.

52. Give the meaning of deluge of summer. What figure in the line? 55. Meaning of this line as applied to humanity?

56. Give the meaning of nice ear as here used. Why is best allowable here?

Now is the high-tide of the year,

And whatever of life hath ebbed away
Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer,

Into every bare inlet and creek and bay;
Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it,
We are happy now because God wills it;
No matter how barren the past may have been,
'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green.

60

We sit in the warm shade and feel right well

65

How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell;

We may shut our eyes, but we cannot help knowing

That skies are clear and grass is growing.

The breeze comes whispering in our ear

That dandelions are blossoming near,

70

That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing,

That the river is bluer than the sky,

That the robin is plastering his house hard by;

And if the breeze kept the good news back,

For other couriers we should not lack;

75

We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing;

And hark! how clear bold Chanticleer,

Warmed with the new wine of the year,

Tells all in his lusty crowing!

Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how;
Everything is happy now,

80

ANALYSIS.-57-60. Point out the figures in these lines.

59. ripply cheer. What figure?

61. What figure in the line?

62. What is the antecedent of it?

63. Supply the ellipsis in the leading clause, and name the modi. fiers of it.

67, 68. Name the object of help; also of knowing.

69, 70. Name the object of whispering.

73. Parse hard by.

78, 79. Point out the figure in these lines. What does Warmed, etc. modify?