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James Russell Lowell
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James Russell Lowell Poems
- Above And Below O dwellers in the valley-land, Who in deep...
- A Stanza On Freedom THEY are slaves who fear to speak For ...
- Abscence Sleep is Death's image,-poets tell us so; But ...
- A Letter This kind o' sogerin' aint a mite like our October ...
- The Search I went to seek for Christ, And Nature seemed so ...
- The First Snowfall THE snow had begun in the gloaming, And ...
- Allegra I would more natures were like thine, That never ...
James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets. These poets usually used conventional forms and meters in their poetry, making them suitable for families entertaining at their fireside.
Lowell graduated from Harvard College in 1838, despite his reputation as a troublemaker, and went on to earn a law degree from Harvard Law School. He published his first collection of poetry in 1841 and married Maria White in 1844. He and his wife had several children, though only one survived past childhood. ... more »
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Quotations
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''I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.''
James Russell Lowell (1819-91), U.S. poet, editor. Letter, March 4, 1873.
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''What men prize most is a privilege, even if it be that of chief mourner at a funeral.''
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), U.S. poet, editor. Address, October 6, 1884, Birmingham, England. "Democracy," Democracy and Other Addresses (1886)....
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''It is mediocrity which makes laws and sets mantraps and spring-guns in the realm of free song, saying thus far shalt thou go and no further.''
James Russell Lowell (1819-91), U.S. poet, editor. "Elizabethan Dramatists, Omitting Shakespear: John Webster," Lowell's Early Prose Writings (1902).
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''Freedom is the only law which genius knows.''
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), U.S. poet, editor. "Elizabethan Dramatists, Omitting Shakespeare: John Webster" (1843), in Lowell's Early Prose Writ...
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''Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.''
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), U.S. poet, editor. "Nationality in Literature," North American Review (July 1849). Reviewing Longfellow's Kavana...
Above And Below
I
O dwellers in the valley-land,
Who in deep twilight grope and cower,
Till the slow mountain's dial-hand
Shorten to noon's triumphal hour,
While ye sit idle, do ye think
The Lord's great work sits idle too?
That light dare not o'erleap the brink
Of morn, because 'tis dark with you?
Though yet your valleys skulk in night,
In God's ripe fields the day is cried,
And reapers, with their sickles bright,
Troop, singing, down the mountain-side:
Come up, and feel what health there is
In the frank Dawn's delighted eyes,
As, bending ...
“The First Snowfall” is about Lowell’s thinking of the snow coverering his daughter’s grave at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge MA where he, too, is buried. This is the poem that Mevelyn is referring to. “She Came and Went” which is about life’s brevity and the little time we have with each other is about the same passing of his daughter.
I’m looking for a poem by James Russell Lowell that he wrote about his daughters death.
“ there’s a narrow ridge in the graveyard
Would scarce......
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Immortal? I know it and feel it.
Who doubts it of such as she?
But that is the pang’s very Secret
Immortal.. away from me.
EXCELLENT POET GREAT! BRAVO! 10++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I'm looking for the name of a poem by JTL about winter. I remember some words, perhaps not accurate:
The snow had begun in the gloaming and busily all the night, had been heaping field and byway with a silence deep and bright. Every pine, fir and hemlock wore ermine too deep for an Earl. And the poorest twig on the elm tree was ridged inch deep in pearl.