Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-12-15
LOWELL.
An Estimate Of the Method and Work Of
James Russell lowell, the Poet Critic
and Diplomat.

James Russell Lowell has achieved
high position among the standard authors
of America. His most enduring fame
rests upon his poetry. His earlier pieces
are characterized by both the merits and
defects of adolescent verse; but he soon
emancipated himself from what may be
termed his vealy trammels, and became
a very forceful and virile writer. His
poems attained their highest popularity
when they developed into humor and
satire and these qualities being turned
into political account, he became one of the
first and most effective allies of the little
anti.slaveIy party, which, starting like
cloud no bigger than a mans hand, was
destined to swell into proportions mighty
and co-extensive with the whole Union. II.
lustrious quartet-Whittier, Holmes Long
fellow, Lowell True to the divine genius
of poetry, their muse rose responsive to
the spirit of liberty like the bards of old,
they tuned their harps to freedoms key,
and turned the shackles of the slave into
emblems of national humiliation and re-
proach. Cries Lowell, in one of his most
stirring outbursts
Are we, then, wholly fallen? Can it be
That thou, north wind, that from thy mountains
brngest
Their spirit our plains; and thou, blue sea-
Who on our rocks the wreaths of freedom flingest,
As on an altar can it be that We
Have wasted inspiration on dead ears,
Dulled with the too familiar eank OF chains
The peoples heart is like harp for years
Hung where some petrifYing torrent rains
Its slow ncrustlng spray; the stlitened chorus
Faint and more faint make answer to the tears
That drip upon them; idle are all words;
Only silver plectrum wakes the tone
Deep buried meath that ever-thickening stone.
Stately and soul-awakening verse, of
which this is a sample, was like seed sown
IN eoodIy coil 1t found Judgment in re-
sponsive hearts, and when the time came
for its full fruition, it sent forth vast
armies to do and die for human freedom
and national unity.
LowELL'S HEROIC STANZAs,
However potent in arousing public senti-
ment to a realization of the blemish Of man.
owning In . country whose institutions
rested, as on a cornerstone, upon the
Declaration of Independence, were doubt
less less etticacious than his strong and
trenchant metrical sstires. About 1916
appeared the first instalmentof his Bigelow
papers. The aRimus .fiHrdndi, so to speak,
of these Yankee verses was to protest
against the Mexican war, on the ground
that it was declared and prosecuted in the
interest of slavery. An active and earnest
school of politicians in the Eastern States
did its utmost to render that war abortive,
one of it's prominent disciples even going
Co., - AloL IL IA
welcome our brave soldiers to their shores
" with bloody hands to hospitable graves
The result of the hostilities showed how
wrong and how unpatriotic these protest
ants had been. Instead of extending the
area of slavery, that war gave to the
American Union the chief jewel in its
coronet OF States. 1t added to American
territory California, Nevada, Utah, Ari.
IONA, New Mexico-giving geographical
symmetry to cur confines, and bathing our
widely-separated littorals in the far-reach-
ing waters of two mighty oceans. The &C
CURED territory was solemnly consecrated
to Freedom. and in the hour of the nations
trial proved to be its most trusted bull
wark. 1t would be a vain task to consider
the literary work of our author, and make
no allusion to the strong sentiment of
political enthusiasm which SO largely per-
vades his poetry. His most noteworthy
efforts are satires upon the vices and cor.
Tuptions OF public life. His method is to
attack these by unmasking them in full
day, and holding them up to public eppro-
brIum In the hideous garments of self-justi-
fication. The best vein of the author in
this line is illustrated by stanzas, of which
this is fair sample:
du believe in bein' this
Or tibet, as it may happen,
One way or t'other hendiest is
To ketch the people nappin
II amt by priucerples or men
My preudeut course is steadied--
l scent what paws the best, and then
Go into it bald-headed.
I doubt very much whether the class, of
which this bald headed party was a type,
has died out to this day, or even dimin-
ished, notwithstanding the timely satire of
our author. It is something, however,
even for poet to have stepped aside from
the higher and sublimer
THEMES OF INSPIRATION
And given the quota of his Hudibrastic
powers to the purifying and elevating of
politics. Since, however, he himself has
taken place among the vast array of Of
fce-holders, and achieved the dignity of
ambassador TO the Court of St. James,
he mas doubtless revised much that ne said
az Birdofreedum Sawin, Esquire, or else
history will write him down failure as
diplomat. The vocation which Talleyrand
formulated as the art of how to say what
you don't believe, and to circumvent by
tinseled deception and sugar coated pre-
varication, has fallen into the wrong hands,
or Lowells preaching and practice are woe
fully at odds, To me, our author is sweet
est and deepest, more grateful and soul
satisfying, when he sings in majestic
strains OF those supreme virtues which are
the highest ideals of the posts of all times
II any production of his is to live beyond
the years thar know him in the flesh II is
MS Commemoration Ode" 1t is a lofty
poem, and has passages which breathe the
very perfume OF inspiration. No finer
apostrophe is to be found in the language
than that addressed to Truth. From his
high eminencs he says
Many loved Truth, and layished fe's best oil
Amid the dusk Of books to find her.
Content at last, Tor guerdon Of their toll,
With the cast mantle she has left behind her.
MANY In sad faith sought for her,
Many with crossed hands sighed for her,
But these, our brothers, fought for her,
At ie's dear peril wrought for her,
- loved her that they died for her,
Tasting the raptured ieetness
oi her divine completeness
Their higher lus incts knew
those love her best VINO TO themselves are true,
And what they dare 20 dream Of. dare to do;
They followed her and found her,
Where all may hope TO find,
S1t ia the ashes Of the burnt-Out mind
YGE beautiful, and dangers sweetness round her.
VIII, re faith made whole with deed
E-eatacs It's awakening breath
Into the lfeless creed,
They saw her plumed and mailed
With sweet, stern face unveiled,
And all-repay,ng eyes, look proud on them in death
Mr.. Lowell has written nothing better
than these lines, and the whole poem
shows how capable he is of sublime flights,
and Of leaving to posterity an enduring
fame. But ous author is not blessed with
fertility. His is doubtless
4 COY AND CAFRICIoUs MUSE,