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145-534: James Russell Lowell ( / ˈ l oʊ əl / ; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) 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 that rivaled the popularity of British poets . These writers 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

290-542: A strophe to Lincoln. In the 1860s, Lowell's friend Longfellow spent several years translating Dante Alighieri 's Divine Comedy and regularly invited others to help him on Wednesday evenings. Lowell was one of the main members of the so-called "Dante Club", along with William Dean Howells , Charles Eliot Norton and other occasional guests. Shortly after serving as a pallbearer at the funeral of friend and publisher Nathaniel Parker Willis on January 24, 1867, Lowell decided to produce another collection of his poetry. Under

435-502: A teetotaler during the early years of his first marriage. However, as he gained notoriety, he became popular in social circles and clubs and he drank rather heavily when away from his wife. When he drank, he had wild mood swings, ranging from euphoria to frenzy. In 1849, Lowell said of himself, "I am the first poet who has endeavored to express the American Idea, and I shall be popular by and by." Poet Walt Whitman said: "Lowell

580-452: A Nightingale ", Keats wrote: ...................................................for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death, Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath; Now more than ever seems it rich to die, To cease upon the midnight with no pain. Romantic poetry was attracted to nostalgia, and medievalism is another important characteristic of romantic poetry, especially in

725-530: A ceremony performed by his brother. Lowell wrote, "My second marriage was the wisest act of my life, & as long as I am sure of it, I can afford to wait till my friends agree with me." In the autumn of 1857, The Atlantic Monthly was established, and Lowell was its first editor. With its first issue in November of that year, he at once gave the magazine the stamp of high literature and of bold speech on public affairs. In January 1861, Lowell's father died of

870-529: A fool and a coward not to end it all at once". Lowell's earliest poems were published without remuneration in the Southern Literary Messenger in 1840. He was inspired to new efforts towards self-support and joined with his friend Robert Carter in founding the literary journal The Pioneer . The periodical was distinguished by the fact that most of its content was new rather than material that had been previously published elsewhere, and by

1015-524: A friend and neighbor, referred to Lowell as "lonely and desolate". At the invitation of his cousin John Amory Lowell , James Russell Lowell was asked to deliver a lecture at the prestigious Lowell Institute. Some speculated the opportunity was because of the family connection, offered as an attempt to bring him out of his depression. Lowell chose to speak on "The English Poets", telling his friend Briggs that he would take revenge on dead poets "for

1160-647: A hack imitator of the English Romantics." More recently, an essay by Dana Gioia has spearheaded a revival of readership and scholarly interest in the life and poetry of Longfellow. There are elements of Romanticism in many later works of American poetry. The influence of Whitman is evident in the work of Langston Hughes and E. E. Cummings ; there are echoes of Transcendentalism in poems about nature by Robert Frost , Carl Sandburg , and Gary Snyder ; there are strains of Romantic individualism in writing by Frank O'Hara , Sylvia Plath , Adrienne Rich , and

1305-615: A heart attack, inspiring Lowell to move his family back to Elmwood. As he wrote to his friend Briggs, "I am back again to the place I love best. I am sitting in my old garret, at my old desk, smoking my old pipe ... I begin to feel more like my old self than I have these ten years." Shortly thereafter, in May, he left The Atlantic Monthly when James T. Fields took over as editor; the magazine had been purchased by Ticknor and Fields for $ 10,000 two years before. Lowell returned to Elmwood by January 1861 but maintained an amicable relationship with

1450-477: A new home with her husband Edward Burnett , the son of a successful businessman-farmer from Southborough, Massachusetts . Lowell and his wife set sail on July 8, 1872, after he took a leave of absence from Harvard. They visited England, Paris, Switzerland, and Italy. While overseas, he received an honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Oxford and another from Cambridge University . They returned to

1595-682: A new poem ... and which is felt in the pervading tone, rather than in brilliant parts or lines." Even his friend Richard Henry Dana Jr. questioned Lowell's abilities, calling him "very clever, entertaining & good humored ... but he is rather a trifler, after all." In the twentieth century, poet Richard Armour dismissed Lowell, writing: "As a Harvard graduate and an editor for the Atlantic Monthly , it must have been difficult for Lowell to write like an illiterate oaf, but he succeeded." The poet Amy Lowell featured her relative James Russell Lowell in her poem A Critical Fable (1922),

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1740-616: A part of Mexico . This voyage would bring Dana to a number of settlements in California (including Monterey , San Buenaventura , San Pedro , San Juan Capistrano , San Diego , Santa Barbara , Santa Clara and San Francisco). After witnessing Thompson's sadistic practices, including a flogging on board the ship, he vowed that he would try to help improve the lot of the common seaman. The Pilgrim collected hides for shipment to Boston, and Dana spent much of his time in California at San Diego's Point Loma curing hides and loading them onto

1885-500: A poem or a prose article. After only one year, he was asked to contribute half as often to the Standard to make room for contributions from Edmund Quincy , another writer and reformer. A Fable for Critics was one of Lowell's most popular works, published anonymously in 1848. It proved a popular satire , and the first 3,000 copies sold out quickly. In it, he took good-natured jabs at his contemporary poets and critics—but not all

2030-464: A poor job of managing the journal. The magazine ceased publication after three monthly numbers beginning in January 1843, leaving Lowell $ 1,800 (~$ 58,860 in 2023) in debt. Poe mourned the journal's demise, calling it "a most severe blow to the cause—the cause of a Pure Taste". Despite the failure of The Pioneer , Lowell continued his interest in the literary world. He wrote a series on "Anti-Slavery in

2175-953: A professorship at Oxford after his recall by President Grover Cleveland , though the offer was declined. He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1883. His second wife, Frances, died on February 19, 1885, while still in England. He returned to the United States by June 1885, living with his daughter and her husband in Southboro, Massachusetts. He then spent time in Boston with his sister before returning to Elmwood in November 1889. By this time, most of his friends were dead, including Quincy, Longfellow, Dana, and Emerson, leaving him depressed and contemplating suicide again. Lowell spent part of

2320-465: A professorship of languages at Harvard in 1854. He traveled to Europe before officially assuming his teaching duties in 1856, and married Frances Dunlap shortly thereafter in 1857. That year, Lowell also became editor of The Atlantic Monthly . He continued to teach at Harvard for twenty years. He received his first political appointment, the ambassadorship to the Kingdom of Spain 20 years later. He

2465-478: A realistic perspective on nature. He believes that nature is not the source of joy and pleasure, but rather that people's reactions to it depend on their mood and disposition. Coleridge believed that joy does not come from external nature, but that it emanates from the human heart. Melancholy occupies a prominent place in romantic poetry, and is an important source of inspiration for the Romantic poets. In '" Ode to

2610-538: A school run by a particularly harsh disciplinarian, where one of his classmates was Richard Henry Dana Jr. Lowell attended Harvard College beginning at age 15 in 1834, though he was not a good student and often got into trouble. In his sophomore year, he was absent from required chapel attendance 14 times and from classes 56 times. In his last year there, he wrote, "During Freshman year, I did nothing, during Sophomore year I did nothing, during Junior year I did nothing, and during Senior year I have thus far done nothing in

2755-451: A serious assault as a consequence of his zeal. His prominence in these cases, along with his fame as a writer, brought him much social recognition on his visit to England in 1856. Three years later, his health gave way from overwork, and he set out on a voyage round the world, revisiting California, where he made the observations that appear in the postscript to this book. The postscript is titled, "Twenty-Four Years After." On his return, Dana

2900-456: A six-month suspension. In his junior year, he contracted measles , which in his case led to ophthalmia . This worsening vision inspired him to take a sea voyage. But rather than going on a fashionable Grand Tour of Europe he decided, despite his social standing, to enlist as a merchant seaman . On August 14, 1834, he departed Boston aboard the brig Pilgrim , captained by Frank Thompson, bound for Alta California , at that time still

3045-461: A standard reference on the legal rights and responsibilities of sailors. He defended many common seamen in court. During his voyages he had kept a diary, and in 1840 (coinciding with his admission to the bar) he published a memoir, Two Years Before the Mast . The term "before the mast" refers to sailors' quarters, which were located in the forecastle (the ship's bow ), officers' quarters being near

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3190-592: A sugar plantation, a bullfight, and various churches, hospitals, schools, and prisons, a trip documented in his book To Cuba and Back . During the American Civil War , Dana served as a United States Attorney , and, in the Prize Cases , successfully argued before the Supreme Court that the U.S. president had the power under the U.S. Constitution to blockade Confederate ports. After

3335-461: 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. The couple had several children, though only one survived past childhood. He became involved in the movement to abolish slavery . Lowell used poetry to express his anti- slavery views and took a job in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , as

3480-421: A vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can. Shelley was another nature poet, who believed that nature is a living thing and there is a union between nature and man. Wordsworth approaches nature philosophically, while Shelley emphasizes the intellect. John Keats was another lover of nature, but Coleridge differs from other Romantic poets of his age, in that he has

3625-563: A whole. Poe, however, strongly disliked transcendentalism. Another American Romantic poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882), was the most popular poet of his day. He was one of the first American celebrities and was also popular in Europe, and it was reported that 10,000 copies of The Courtship of Miles Standish sold in London in a single day. However, Longfellow's popularity rapidly declined, beginning shortly after his death and into

3770-500: A year or two, did not return to the United States until 1885, with the violinist Ole Bull renting Elmwood for a portion of that time. The Spanish media referred to him as "José Bighlow". Lowell was well-prepared for his political role, having been trained in law, as well as being able to read in multiple languages. He had trouble socializing while in Spain, however, and amused himself by sending humorous dispatches to his political bosses in

3915-565: Is an excerpt: Richard Henry Dana, the second of that name, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 1, 1815. He came of a stock that had resided there since the days of the early settlements; his grandfather, Francis Dana , had been the first American minister to Russia and later became chief justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts; his father was distinguished as a man of letters. He entered Harvard College in 1831; but near

4060-465: Is another important feature of Romantic poetry, as a source of inspiration. This poetry involves a relationship with external nature and places, and a belief in pantheism . However, the Romantic poets differed in their views about nature. Wordsworth recognized nature as a living thing, teacher, god, and everything. These feelings are fully developed and expressed in his epic poem The Prelude . In his poem "The Tables Turned" he writes: One impulse from

4205-618: Is considered by many to be the central representative of Romanticism in Russian literature; however, he can't be labelled unequivocally as a Romantic. Russian critics have traditionally argued that,during the 36 years of his life, Pushkin's works took a path from neo-Classicism through Romanticism and ultimately to Realism . An alternative assessment suggests that "he had an ability to entertain contrarities [ sic ] which may seem Romantic in origin, but are ultimately subversive of all fixed points of view, all single outlooks, including

4350-405: Is considered to be the ideologue of Sturm und Drang , with Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz , H. L. Wagner and Friedrich Maximilian Klinger also significant figures. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was also a notable proponent of the movement, though he and Friedrich Schiller ended their period of association with it by initiating what would become Weimar Classicism . Jena Romanticism  – also

4495-665: Is emphasised during this period. Leading Romantic poets include Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (considered the most important), Manuel José Quintana , José Zorrilla , Rosalía de Castro (in Galician and Spanish), and José de Espronceda . In Catalonia , the Romantic movement was a major trigger for the Catalan Renaissance or ' Renaixença ', which would gradually bring back prestige to the Catalan language and literature (in decadence since its 15th-century Golden Age), with

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4640-404: Is full of allusions to the art, literature and culture of Greece, as for example in " Ode on a Grecian Urn ". Most of the romantic poets used supernatural elements in their poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge is the leading romantic poet in this regard, and " Kubla Khan " is full of supernatural elements. Romantic poetry is the poetry of sentiments, emotions and imagination. Romantic poetry opposed

4785-653: Is often called Heidelberg Romanticism (see also Berlin Romanticism ). There was a famous circle of poets, the Heidelberg Romantics, such as Joseph von Eichendorff , Johann Joseph von Görres , Ludwig Achim von Arnim , and Clemens Brentano . A relic of Romanticism is the Philosophers' Walk (German: Philosophenweg ), a scenic walking path on the nearby Heiligenberg, overlooking Heidelberg. The Romantik epoch of German philosophy and literature,

4930-407: Is stereotyped; his thought sounds no depth, and posterity will not remember him." Evert Augustus Duyckinck thought Lowell was too similar to other poets like William Shakespeare and John Milton . Ralph Waldo Emerson noted that, though Lowell had significant technical skill, his poetry "rather expresses his wish, his ambition, than the uncontrollable interior impulse which is the authentic mark of

5075-803: Is traditionally referred to as the "Golden Era" of Russian literature . Romanticism permitted a flowering of especially poetic talent: the names of Vasily Zhukovsky and later that of his protégé Alexander Pushkin came to the fore. Pushkin is credited with both crystallizing the literary Russian language and introducing a new level of artistry to Russian literature. His best-known work is a novel as sonnet sequence , Eugene Onegin . An entire new generation of poets including Mikhail Lermontov , Yevgeny Baratynsky , Konstantin Batyushkov , Nikolay Nekrasov , Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy , Fyodor Tyutchev and Afanasy Fet followed in Pushkin's steps. Pushkin

5220-731: The Critique of Judgment and what was seen as the failure of the Analytic of the Sublime to accomplish the task set before it: bridging the gap between pure and practical reason. In a different vein, Friedrich Hölderlin and Heinrich von Kleist also grappled with similar philosophical issues in a manner different from the Jena circle. Heidelberg was the centre of the epoch of Romantik ( Romanticism ) in Germany. The phase after Jena Romanticism

5365-530: The Age of Revolutions . The idea of the creative imagination was stressed above the idea of reason, and minute elements of nature, including as insects and pebbles, were now considered divine. Nature was perceived in many different ways by the Spanish Romantics, and Instead of employing allegory , as earlier poets had done, these poets tended to use myth and symbol . The power of human emotion furthermore

5510-593: The Compromise of 1850 inspired Lowell to accept an offer from William Wetmore Story to spend a winter in Italy . To pay for the trip, Lowell sold land around Elmwood, intending to sell off further acres of the estate over time to supplement his income, ultimately selling off 25 of the original 30 acres (120,000 m). Walter died suddenly in Rome of cholera , and Lowell and his wife, with their daughter Mabel, returned to

5655-629: The North American Review , an acerbic review of the life and work of the recently deceased Henry David Thoreau titled "Letters to Various Persons," contributed to a decades-long critical consensus of disdain for Thoreau. As early as 1845, Lowell had predicted the debate over slavery would lead to war and, as the Civil War broke out in the 1860s, Lowell used his role at the Review to praise Abraham Lincoln and his attempts to maintain

5800-804: The Reverend Charles Lowell (1782–1861), a minister at a Unitarian church in Boston who had previously studied theology at Edinburgh , and Harriett Brackett Spence Lowell. By the time that James was born, the family owned a large estate in Cambridge called Elmwood . He was the youngest of six children; his siblings were Charles, Rebecca, Mary , William, and Robert . Lowell's mother built in him an appreciation for literature at an early age, especially in poetry, ballads , and tales from her native Orkney . He attended school under Sophia Dana , who later married George Ripley ; he later studied at

5945-651: The egalitarian ethos behind the French Revolution . Whether Burns would have recognised the same principles at work in the Soviet State at its most repressive is moot. This didn't stop the Communists from claiming Burns as one of their own and incorporating his work into their state propaganda. The post-communist years of rampant capitalism in Russia have not tarnished Burns' reputation. Lord Byron

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6090-495: The grotesque or other extraordinary experiences that "take us beyond ourselves." The literary concept of the sublime became important in the eighteenth century. It is associated with the 1757 treatise by Edmund Burke , though it has earlier roots. The idea of the sublime was taken up by Immanuel Kant and the Romantic poets including especially William Wordsworth . Romantic poetry contrasts with Neoclassical poetry , which

6235-414: The ministry , medicine, and law. He ultimately enrolled at Harvard Law School in 1840 and was admitted to the bar two years later. While studying law, however, he contributed poems and prose articles to various magazines. During this time, he was admittedly depressed and often had suicidal thoughts. He once confided to a friend that he held a cocked pistol to his forehead and considered killing himself at

6380-432: The temperance movement . His friend Longfellow was especially concerned about his fanaticism for temperance, worrying that Lowell would ask him to destroy his wine cellar. There are many references to Lowell's drinking during his college years, and part of his reputation in school was based on it. His friend Edward Everett Hale denied these allegations. Lowell considered joining the "Anti-Wine" club at Harvard, and he became

6525-510: The 1880s delivering various speeches, and his last published works were mostly collections of essays, including Political Essays , and a collection of his poems Heartsease and Rue in 1888. His last few years he traveled back to England periodically and when he returned to the United States in the fall of 1889, he moved back to Elmwood with Mabel, while her husband worked for clients in New York and New Jersey. That year, Lowell gave an address at

6670-413: The 19th-century in diverse literary developments, such as "realism", " symbolism ", and the so-called fin de siècle "decadent" movement . German Romanticism was the dominant intellectual movement in the philosophy , the arts , and the culture of German-speaking countries in the late-18th and early 19th centuries. Compared to English Romanticism, German Romanticism developed relatively late, and, in

6815-514: The 20th Century as academics began to appreciate poets like Walt Whitman, Edwin Arlington Robinson , and Robert Frost . In the twentieth century, literary scholar Kermit Vanderbilt noted, "Increasingly rare is the scholar who braves ridicule to justify the art of Longfellow's popular rhymings." 20th-century poet Lewis Putnam Turco concluded "Longfellow was minor and derivative in every way throughout his career [...] nothing more than

6960-528: The Civil War inspired him to write a second series of The Biglow Papers , including one specifically dedicated to the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation called "Sunthin' in the Pastoral Line" in 1862. Shortly after Lincoln's assassination , Lowell was asked to present a poem at Harvard in memory of graduates killed in the war. His poem, " Commemoration Ode ", cost him sleep and his appetite, but

7105-529: The Close Shut Window". Poetry collections Essay collections [REDACTED] Category Romantic poetry In early-19th-century England, the poet William Wordsworth defined his and Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's innovative poetry in his new Preface to the second edition (1800) of Lyrical Ballads : I have said before that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin in emotion recollected in tranquility:

7250-704: The December following his return to Boston in 1836, Dana re-entered Harvard, the hero of his fellow students, graduating the following June. He next took up the study of law, at the same time teaching elocution in the College, and in 1840 he opened an office in Boston. While in law school he had written the narrative of his voyage, which he now published; and in the following year, 1841, issued The Seaman's Friend . Both books were republished in England and brought him an immediate reputation. After several years of practicing law, during which he dealt largely with cases involving

7395-522: The Jena Romantics or Early Romanticism (Frühromantik) – is the first phase of Romanticism in German literature represented by the work of a group centered in Jena from about 1798 to 1804, notably Friedrich Schlegel , August Wilhelm Schlegel , Novalis , Ludwig Tieck , and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling . These thinkers were primarily concerned with the problems posed by Immanuel Kant in

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7540-543: The Mast . But you can read, and so you must have read it. His chapters describing Cape Horn must have been written with an icicle." On September 22, 1836, Dana arrived back in Massachusetts. He then enrolled at what is now Harvard Law School , then called the Dane Law School after Nathan Dane . He graduated in 1837, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. Dana went on to specialize in maritime law . In

7685-483: The October 1839 issue of a magazine, he took a local judge, one of his own instructors in law school, to task for letting off a ship's captain and mate with a slap on the wrist for murdering the ship's cook, beating him to death for not "laying hold" of a piece of equipment. The judge had sentenced the captain to ninety days in jail and the mate to thirty days. In 1841, Dana published The Seaman's Friend, which became

7830-583: The Old Poets , a collection of his previously published essays. A friend described their relationship as "the very picture of a True Marriage". Lowell himself believed that she was made up "half of earth and more than half of Heaven". She, too, wrote poetry, and the next twelve years of Lowell's life were deeply affected by her influence. He said that his first book of poetry A Year's Life (1841) "owes all its beauty to her", though it only sold 300 copies. Maria's character and beliefs led her to become involved in

7975-417: The Romantic" and that "he is simultaneously Romantic and not Romantic". Scottish poet Robert Burns became a "people's poet" in Russia. In Imperial times the Russian aristocracy were so out of touch with the peasantry that Burns, translated into Russian , became a symbol for the ordinary Russian people. In Soviet Russia, Burns was elevated as the archetypical poet of the people – not least since

8120-513: The Soviet regime slaughtered and silenced its own poets. A new translation of Burns, begun in 1924 by Samuil Marshak , proved enormously popular selling over 600,000 copies. In 1956, the Soviet Union became the first country in the world to honour Burns with a commemorative stamp. The poetry of Burns is taught in Russian schools alongside their own national poets. Burns was a great admirer of

8265-624: The U.S. House of Representatives from Essex County, Massachusetts . He lost to incumbent Republican Benjamin Butler and also received fewer votes than Democrat Otis P. Lord . In 1876, his nomination as minister to Great Britain was defeated in the Senate by political enemies William Beach Lawrence and Benjamin Butler, partly because of a lawsuit for plagiarism brought against him for a legal textbook he had edited, Henry Wheaton 's Elements of International Law (8th ed., 1866). Immediately after

8410-458: The U.S. government before the U.S. Supreme Court during the Civil War in the Prize Cases . Both as a writer and as a lawyer, he was a champion of the downtrodden, from seamen to fugitive slaves and freedmen. Dana was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts , on August 1, 1815 into a family that had settled in colonial America in 1640, counting Anne Bradstreet among its ancestors. His father

8555-514: The Union. Lowell lost three nephews during the war, including Charles Russell Lowell Jr. , who became a brigadier general and fell at the Battle of Cedar Creek . Lowell himself was generally a pacifist. Even so, he wrote, "If the destruction of slavery is to be a consequence of the war, shall we regret it? If it be needful to the successful prosecution of the war, shall anyone oppose it?" His interest in

8700-449: The United States in October 1852. Lowell published recollections of his journey in several magazines, many of which would be collected years later as Fireside Travels (1867). He also edited volumes with biographical sketches for a series on British Poets . His wife Maria, who had been suffering from poor health for many years, became very ill in the spring of 1853 and died on October 27 of tuberculosis . Just before her burial, her coffin

8845-440: The United States in the summer of 1856 and began his college duties. Towards the end of his professorship, then-president of Harvard Charles William Eliot noted that Lowell seemed to have "no natural inclination" to teach; Lowell agreed, but retained his position for twenty years. He focused on teaching literature, rather than etymology , hoping that his students would learn to enjoy the sound, rhythm, and flow of poetry rather than

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8990-544: The United States in the summer of 1874. Lowell resigned from his Harvard professorship in 1874, though he was persuaded to continue teaching through 1877. It was in 1876 that Lowell first stepped into the field of politics. That year, he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio , speaking on behalf of presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes . Hayes won

9135-559: The United States" for the Daily News , though his series was discontinued by the editors after four articles in May 1846. He had published these articles anonymously, believing that they would have more impact if they were not known to be the work of a committed abolitionist. In the spring of 1848, he formed a connection with the National Anti-Slavery Standard of New York , agreeing to contribute weekly either

9280-506: The United States, many of which were later collected and published posthumously in 1899 as Impressions of Spain . Lowell's social life improved when the Spanish Academy elected him a corresponding member in late 1878, allowing him contribute to the preparation of a new dictionary. In January 1880, Lowell was informed of his appointment as Minister to England , his nomination made without his knowledge as far back as June 1879. He

9425-600: The Willows and Other Poems was released in 1869, though Lowell originally wanted to title it The Voyage to the Vinland and Other Poems . The book, dedicated to Norton, collected poems Lowell had written within the previous twenty years and was his first poetry collection since 1848. Lowell intended to take another trip to Europe. To finance it, he sold off more of Elmwood's acres and rented the house to Thomas Bailey Aldrich ; Lowell's daughter Mabel, by this time, had moved into

9570-602: The actual composition of this work was little more than begun when he died in Rome, January 6, 1882. His son, Richard Henry Dana III , married Edith Longfellow, daughter of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . Additional biographical information and insights into the life of Richard Henry Dana Jr. are in the "Introductory Note" to the Harvard Classics edition of Two Years Before the Mast , edited by Charles W. Eliot, L.L.D., and published by P.F. Collier & Son in 1909. Here

9715-410: The age of 20. In late 1839, Lowell met Maria White through her brother William, a classmate at Harvard, and the two became engaged in the autumn of 1840. Maria's father Abijah White, a wealthy merchant from Watertown , insisted that their wedding be postponed until Lowell had gainful employment. They were finally married on December 26, 1844, shortly after the groom published Conversations on Some of

9860-420: The beginning of his third year an attack of measles left his eyesight so weak that study was impossible. Tired of the tedium of a slow convalescence, he decided on a sea voyage; and choosing to go as a sailor rather than a passenger, he shipped from Boston on August 14, 1834, on the brig Pilgrim , bound for the coast of California. His experiences for the next two years form the subject of the present volume. In

10005-442: The better our chances for survival as citizens and inhabitants of the earth". [REDACTED] Category Richard Henry Dana Jr. Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts , a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir Two Years Before the Mast and as an attorney who successfully represented

10150-458: The book's publication, Dana had been charged by the editor of two earlier editions, William Beach Lawrence, with infringing his copyright, and was involved in litigation that continued for thirteen years. In such minor matters as arrangement of notes and verification of citations the court found against Dana, but in the main Dana's notes were vastly different from Lawrence's. In 1877, Dana was one of

10295-419: The boy's father to protest enough that the practice was abolished. In 1825, Dana enrolled in a private school overseen by Ralph Waldo Emerson , whom Dana later mildly praised as "a very pleasant instructor", though he lacked a "system or discipline enough to ensure regular and vigorous study." In July 1831, Dana enrolled at Harvard College , where in his freshman year his support of a student protest cost him

10440-614: The care of the Rev. Barzallai Frost because of his neglect of his studies. During his stay in Concord, he became friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and got to know the other Transcendentalists . His Class Day poem satirized the social movements of the day; abolitionists, Thomas Carlyle , Emerson, and the Transcendentalists were treated. Lowell did not know what vocation to choose after graduating, and he vacillated among business ,

10585-609: The centenary of George Washington 's inauguration. Also that year, the Boston Critic dedicated a special issue to Lowell on his seventieth birthday to recollections and reminiscences by his friends, including former presidents Hayes and Benjamin Harrison and British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone as well as Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Francis Parkman . In the last few months of his life, Lowell struggled with gout , sciatica in his left leg, and chronic nausea; by

10730-456: The common man's experience and was rebelling against more formal and, as he thought, unnatural representations of Americans in literature. As he wrote in his introduction to The Biglow Papers , "few American writers or speakers wield their native language with the directness, precision, and force that are common as the day in the mother country" (i.e. England). Though intentionally humorous, this precise representation of an early New England dialect

10875-611: The counsel for the U.S. federal government , appearing before the Halifax Fisheries Commission , appointed under the Treaty of Washington (1871) to resolve outstanding issues, including fishing rights. The Commission gave an award directing the U.S. to pay $ 5,500,000 to the British government. Towards the end of his life he went to Europe to devote himself to the preparation of a treatise on international law, but

11020-520: The creation of a new national literature. Instead, he called for a natural literature, regardless of country, caste, or race, and warned against provincialism which might "put farther off the hope of one great brotherhood". He agreed with his neighbor Longfellow that "whoever is most universal, is also most national". As Lowell said: I believe that no poet in this age can write much that is good unless he gives himself up to [the radical] tendency ... The proof of poetry is, in my mind, that it reduces to

11165-402: The death of his wife Maria White. However, in 1857, surprising his friends, he became engaged to Frances Dunlap, whom many described as simple and unattractive. Dunlap, niece of the former governor of Maine Robert P. Dunlap , was a friend of Lowell's first wife and formerly wealthy, though she and her family had fallen into reduced circumstances. Lowell and Dunlap married on September 16, 1857, in

11310-414: The dominant theme of English Romantic poetry: the filtering of natural emotion through the human mind in order to create meaning. The Sublime is considered one of the most important concepts in Romantic poetry. In literature, it refers to use of language and description that excites thoughts and emotions beyond ordinary experience. Although it is often associated with grandeur , the sublime may also refer to

11455-457: The early years, coincided with Weimar Classicism (1772–1805); in contrast to the seriousness of English Romanticism, the German variety of Romanticism notably valued wit, humour, and beauty . Sturm und Drang , literally "Storm and Drive", "Storm and Urge", though conventionally translated as "Storm and Stress") is a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music that took place from

11600-539: The editor of an abolitionist newspaper. After moving back to Cambridge, Lowell was one of the founders of a journal called The Pioneer , which lasted only three issues. He gained notoriety in 1848 with the publication of A Fable for Critics , a book-length poem satirizing contemporary critics and poets. The same year, he published The Biglow Papers , which increased his fame. He went on to publish several other poetry collections and essay collections throughout his literary career. Maria died in 1853, and Lowell accepted

11745-556: The emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind. The poems of Lyrical Ballads intentionally re-imagined the way poetry should sound: "By fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of the real language of men," Wordsworth and his English contemporaries, such as Coleridge, John Keats , Percy Shelley , Lord Byron and William Blake , wrote poetry that

11890-411: The end of the Civil War, he resigned his office since he did not approve of President Andrew Johnson 's policy of Reconstruction, which was denounced by Radical Republicans as being too moderate in regard to blacks’ civil rights and the punishment of former Confederates, and entered private practice. During 1867–1868, Dana was a member of the Massachusetts legislature and also served as a U.S. counsel in

12035-825: The essence of a single line the vague philosophy which is floating in all men's minds, and so render it portable and useful, and ready to the hand ... At least, no poem ever makes me respect its author which does not in some way convey a truth of philosophy. A scholar of linguistics , Lowell was one of the founders of the American Dialect Society . He applied this passion to some of his writings, most famously in The Biglow Papers , in which he presents an early 19th-century rural Yankee dialect , complete with nonstandard local grammar and quasi-phonetic spelling—a literary method called eye dialect . In using this vernacular, Lowell intended to get closer to

12180-503: The family fireplace. Besides Lowell, the main figures from this group were Longfellow, Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier , and William Cullen Bryant . Lowell was an abolitionist, but his opinions wavered concerning African-Americans. He advocated suffrage for blacks , yet he noted that their ability to vote could be troublesome. Even so, he wrote, "We believe the white race, by their intellectual and traditional superiority, will retain sufficient ascendancy to prevent any serious mischief from

12325-517: The free human spirit." Belief in the importance of the imagination is a distinctive feature of romantic poets such as John Keats , Samuel Taylor Coleridge and P. B. Shelley , unlike the neoclassical poets. Keats said, "I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of Imagination- What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth." For Wordsworth and William Blake , as well as Victor Hugo and Alessandro Manzoni ,

12470-437: The imagination is a spiritual force, is related to morality, and they believed that literature, especially poetry, could improve the world. The secret of great art, Blake claimed, is the capacity to imagine. To define imagination, in his poem " Auguries of Innocence ", Blake said: To see a world in a grain of sand, And heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. Love for nature

12615-493: The inclusion of very serious criticism , which covered not only literature but also art and music. Lowell wrote that it would "furnish the intelligent and reflecting portion of the Reading Public with a rational substitute for the enormous quantity of thrice-diluted trash, in the shape of namby-pamby love tales and sketches, which is monthly poured out to them by many of our popular Magazines." William Wetmore Story noted

12760-403: The individual human's role in it. However, much like Emerson, Whitman does not diminish the role of the mind or the spirit; rather, he elevates the human form and the human mind, deeming both worthy of poetic praise. Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) is best known for his poetry and short stories, and is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as

12905-432: The injuries received by one whom the public won't allow among the living". The first of the twelve-part lecture series was to be on January 9, 1855, though by December, Lowell had only completed writing five of them, hoping for last-minute inspiration. His first lecture was on John Milton and the auditorium was oversold; Lowell had to give a repeat performance the next afternoon. Lowell, who had never spoken in public before,

13050-410: The journal's higher taste, writing that "it took some stand & appealled to a higher intellectual Standard than our puerile milk or watery namby-pamby Mags with which we are overrun". The first issue of the journal included the first appearance of " The Tell-Tale Heart " by Edgar Allan Poe . Lowell was treated for an eye disease in New York shortly after the first issue, and in his absence Carter did

13195-480: The late 1760s to the early 1780s, in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment and associated aesthetic movements. The period is named for Friedrich Maximilian Klinger 's play Sturm und Drang , which was first performed in 1777. The philosopher Johann Georg Hamann

13340-533: The leading figure in poetry of Jacint Verdaguer . In Swedish literature the Romantic period is between 1809 and 1830, while in Europe, the period is usually seen as running between 1800 and 1850. The Swedish version was very much influenced by German literature . During this relatively short period, there were so many great Swedish poets, that the era is called the Golden Age . The period started around when several periodicals were published that criticised

13485-641: The literature of the 18th century. The important periodical Iduna , published by the Gothic Society (1811), presented a romanticised version of Gothicismus , a 17th-century cultural movement in Sweden that had centered on the belief in the glory of the Swedish Geats or Goths. The early 19th-century Romantic nationalist version emphasised the Vikings as heroic figures. Transcendentalism

13630-570: The most important writers in the United States: "Greece had her Aristophanes ; Rome her Juvenal ; Spain has had her Cervantes ; France her Rabelais , her Molière , her Voltaire ; Germany her Jean Paul , her Heine ; England her Swift , her Thackeray ; and America has her Lowell." Lowell's satires and use of dialect were an inspiration for writers like Mark Twain , William Dean Howells , H. L. Mencken , and Ring Lardner . Contemporary critic and editor Margaret Fuller wrote, "his verse

13775-514: The movements directed against intemperance and slavery. She was a member of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and persuaded her husband to become an abolitionist . James had previously expressed antislavery sentiments, but Maria urged him towards more active expression and involvement. His second volume of poems Miscellaneous Poems expressed these antislavery thoughts, and its 1,500 copies sold well. Maria

13920-596: The national crisis over slavery leading up to the Civil War, has had an impact in the modern civil rights movement. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People named its newsletter The Crisis after the poem, and Martin Luther King Jr. frequently quoted the poem in his speeches and sermons. The poem was also the source of the hymn " Once to Every Man and Nation ". American composer Emily Bruce Roelofson used Lowell's text in her song "From

14065-451: The new order of things." Freed slaves , he wrote, were "dirty, lazy & lying". Even before his marriage to abolitionist Maria White, Lowell wrote: "The abolitionists are the only ones with whom I sympathize of the present extant parties." After his marriage, Lowell at first did not share his wife's enthusiasm for the cause, but he was eventually pulled in. The couple often gave money to fugitive slaves, even when their own financial situation

14210-515: The new owners of the journal, continuing to submit his poetry and prose for the rest of his life. His prose, however, was more abundantly presented in the pages of the North American Review during the years 1862–1872. For the Review , he served as a coeditor along with Charles Eliot Norton . Lowell's reviews for the journal covered a wide variety of literary releases of the day, though he was writing fewer poems. One essay of his for

14355-560: The nomination and, eventually, the presidency. In May 1877, President Hayes, an admirer of The Biglow Papers , sent William Dean Howells to Lowell with a handwritten note proffering an ambassadorship to either Austria or Russia ; Lowell declined, but noted his interest in Spanish literature . Lowell was then offered and accepted the role of Minister to the court of Spain at an annual salary of $ 12,000. Lowell sailed from Boston on July 14, 1877, and, though he expected he would be away for

14500-543: The objectivity of neoclassical poetry. Neoclassical poets avoided describing their personal emotions in their poetry, unlike the Romantics. . French literature from the first half of the century was dominated by Romanticism, which is associated with such authors as Victor Hugo , Alexandre Dumas, père , François-René de Chateaubriand , Alphonse de Lamartine , Gérard de Nerval , Charles Nodier , Alfred de Musset , Théophile Gautier and Alfred de Vigny . Their influence

14645-561: The poet was a prophet but went further, linking religion, nature, and poetry, as well as social reform. Evert Augustus Duyckinck and others welcomed Lowell as part of Young America , a New York-based movement. Though not officially affiliated with them, he shared some of their ideals, including the belief that writers have an inherent insight into the moral nature of humanity and have an obligation for literary action along with their aesthetic function. Unlike many of his contemporaries, including members of Young America, Lowell did not advocate for

14790-623: The profits from the book's success (which proved relatively small), despite his own financial needs. In 1848, Lowell also published The Biglow Papers , later named by the Grolier Club as the most influential book of 1848. The first 1,500 copies sold out within a week and a second edition was soon issued—though Lowell made no profit, as he had to absorb the cost of stereotyping the book himself. The book presented three main characters, each representing different aspects of American life and using authentic American dialects in their dialogue. Under

14935-566: The question of slavery. Abolitionist Samuel Joseph May accused him of trying to quit the movement because of his association with Harvard and the Boston Brahmin culture: "Having got into the smooth, dignified, self-complacent, and change-hating society of the college and its Boston circles, Lowell has gone over to the world, and to 'respectability'." Lowell was also involved in other reform movements. He urged better conditions for factory workers, opposed capital punishment , and supported

15080-563: The rights of seamen, he began to take part in politics as an active member of the Free Soil Party. The Free Soil Party was founded in 1847–48 in opposition to the extension of slavery into the western U.S. territories newly acquired from Mexico. During the operation of the Fugitive Slave Act he served as counsel on behalf of the fugitives Shadrach Minkins , Thomas Sims , and Anthony Burns , and on one occasion suffered

15225-517: The ship's owners to a different ship: the Alert . Dana gives the classic account of the return trip around Cape Horn in the middle of the Antarctic winter. He describes terrifying storms and profound beauty, giving vivid descriptions of icebergs , which he calls incomparable. He found the most incredible part of the journey the weeks and weeks it took to negotiate passage against winds and storms—all

15370-585: The ship. Dana's description of his time on Point Loma depicted love and concern for the Hawaiians who worked there alongside him. He may have been predisposed to feel positively toward them by a previous stay in Andover, Massachusetts , among evangelicals who had embraced Hawaiians in New England and sent the first Protestant missionaries to Hawaii. Wishing to return home sooner, Dana was reassigned by

15515-409: The spring of 1885, despite his wife's failing health. Lowell was already well known in England for his writing and, during his time there, befriended fellow author Henry James , who referred to him as "conspicuously American". Lowell also befriended Leslie Stephen many years earlier and became the godfather to his daughter, future writer Virginia Woolf . Lowell was popular enough that he was offered

15660-492: The stern. His writing evinces his later sympathy for the oppressed. With the California Gold Rush later in the decade, Two Years Before the Mast would become highly sought after as one of the few sources of information on California . Dana became a prominent abolitionist , helping to found the anti- slavery Free Soil Party in 1848 and representing the fugitive slave Anthony Burns in Boston in 1854. He

15805-399: The subjects were pleased. Edgar Allan Poe was referred to as part genius and "two-fifths sheer fudge"; he reviewed the work in the Southern Literary Messenger and called it "'loose'—ill-conceived and feebly executed, as well in detail as in general ... we confess some surprise at his putting forth so unpolished a performance." Lowell offered his New York friend Charles Frederick Briggs all

15950-629: The summer of 1891, doctors believed that Lowell had cancer in his kidneys, liver, and lungs. His last few months, he was administered opium for the pain and was rarely fully conscious. He died on August 12, 1891, at Elmwood. After services in the Appleton Chapel , he was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery . After his death, Norton served as his literary executor and published several collections of Lowell's works and his letters. Early in his career, James Russell Lowell's writing

16095-527: The surface, The Biglow Papers was also a denunciation of the Mexican–American War and war in general. In 1850, Lowell's mother died unexpectedly, as did his third daughter, Rose. Her death left Lowell depressed and reclusive for six months, despite the birth of his son Walter by the end of the year. He wrote to a friend that death "is a private tutor. We have no fellow-scholars, and must lay our lessons to heart alone." These personal troubles as well as

16240-470: The technique of words. He summed up his method: "True scholarship consists in knowing not what things exists, but what they mean; it is not memory but judgment." Still grieving the loss of his wife, during this time Lowell avoided Elmwood and instead lived on Kirkland Street in Cambridge, an area known as Professors' Row. He stayed there, along with his daughter Mabel and her governess Frances Dunlap, until January 1861. Lowell had intended never to remarry after

16385-433: The title mocking A Fable for Critics . Here, a fictional version of Lowell says he does not believe that women will ever be equal to men in the arts and "the two sexes cannot be ranked counterparts". Modern literary critic Van Wyck Brooks wrote that Lowell's poetry was forgettable: "one read them five times over and still forgot them, as if this excellent verse had been written in water." His The Vision of Sir Launfal (1848),

16530-706: The trial of Confederate President Jefferson Davis . On August 24, 1868, Dana wrote a letter to Attorney General William Evarts arguing that the United States should abandon the prosecution because, even though there was no doubt that Davis had committed treason, a jury in Virginia would be unlikely to convict, which "would be most humiliating to the Government and people of this country." A conviction, even "if obtained, will settle nothing in law or natural practice not now settled, and nothing in fact not now history...." In 1868, Dana ran as an independent candidate for

16675-551: The true Yankee accent in the dialogue of his characters, particularly in The Biglow Papers . This depiction of the dialect, as well as his many satires, was an inspiration to writers such as Mark Twain and H. L. Mencken . James Russell Lowell was born February 22, 1819. He was a member of the eighth generation of the Lowell family , the descendants of Percival Lowle who settled in Newbury, Massachusetts , in 1639. His parents were

16820-487: The way of college studies." In his senior year, he became one of the editors of Harvardiana , a literary magazine, to which he contributed prose and poetry that he admitted was of low quality. As he said later, "I was as great an ass as ever brayed & thought it singing." During his undergraduate years, Lowell was a member of Hasty Pudding and served both as secretary and poet. While at Harvard, he became lifelong friends with fellow troublemaker George W. Minns . Lowell

16965-522: The while having to race up and down the ice-covered rigging to furl and unfurl sails. At one point he had an infected tooth, and his face swelled up so that he was unable to work for several days, despite the need for all hands. He also describes the scurvy that afflicts members of the crew after the rounding of the Horn. In White-Jacket , Herman Melville wrote, "But if you want the best idea of Cape Horn, get my friend Dana's unmatchable Two Years Before

17110-508: The work of the Beat Generation . However, all of these poets are generally identified with more recent movements -- as feminists, Harlem Renaissance writers, modernists, et cetera -- and only indirectly linked with Romanticism by their critics. Some writers consider romantic poetry a way for a better life. Moreover, as Heidi Thomson mentioned in her article, Why Romantic Poetry Still Matters , "The more literate and articulate we are,

17255-416: The works of John Keats, for example, La Belle Dame Sans Merci , and Coleridge. They were attracted to exotic, remote and obscure places, and so they were more attracted to Middle Ages than to their own age. Medieval Englishman Richard Rolle has been viewed as an early romantic writer with poems such as The Fire of Love . The world of classical Greece was important to the Romantics. John Keats' poetry

17400-809: Was a literary, artistic and intellectual period in the evolution of Polish culture , which began around 1820, coinciding with the publication of Adam Mickiewicz 's first poems, Ballads and Romances , in 1822. It ended with the suppression of the Polish-Lithuanian January 1863 Uprising against the Russian Empire in 1864. The latter event ushered in a new era in Polish culture known as Positivism . Some other notable Polish romantic poets include Juliusz Słowacki , Cyprian Kamil Norwid , Zygmunt Krasiński , Tymon Zaborowski , Antoni Malczewski and Józef Bohdan Zaleski . The 19th century

17545-508: Was a major influence on almost all Russian poets of the Golden Era, including Pushkin, Vyazemsky, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Baratynsky, Delvig and, especially, Lermontov. Germany and England were major influences on Romantic Spanish poetry . During the late 18th century to the late 19th century, Romanticism spread in the form of philosophy and art throughout Western societies , and the earlier period of this movement overlapped with

17690-600: Was a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee , an organization that assisted fugitive slaves. In 1853, Dana represented William T. G. Morton in Morton's attempt to establish that he discovered the "anaesthetic properties of ether". In 1859, while the U.S. Senate was considering whether the United States should try to annex the Spanish possession of Cuba , Dana traveled there and visited Havana ,

17835-582: Was a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern region of the United States, rooted in English and German Romanticism , the Biblical criticism of Herder and Schleiermacher , the skepticism of Hume , and the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant and of German Idealism . It was also influenced by Indian religions , especially the Upanishads . The movement

17980-608: Was a reaction to or protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality . The doctrine of the Unitarian church as taught at Harvard Divinity School was of particular interest. Poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892), whose major work Leaves of Grass was first published in 1855, was influenced by transcendentalism. Influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalist movement, itself an offshoot of Romanticism, Whitman's poetry praises nature and

18125-713: Was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as United States Attorney for Massachusetts. In his argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Prize Cases , which upheld Lincoln's blockade of Southern ports, he greatly increased an already brilliant legal reputation. He spoke out in favor of African-American voting, education, property, and firearms ownership, stating: We have got to choose between two results. With these four millions of Negroes, either you must have four millions of disfranchised, disarmed, untaught, landless, thriftless, non-producing, non-consuming, degraded men, or else you must have four millions of land-holding, industrious, arms-bearing, and voting population. Choose between

18270-464: Was born December 31, 1845, but lived only fifteen months; Rose, born in 1849, survived only a few months as well; their only son Walter was born in 1850 but died in 1852. Lowell was very affected by the loss of almost all of his children. His grief over the death of his first daughter in particular was expressed in his poem " The First Snowfall " (1847). He again considered suicide, writing to a friend that he thought "of my razors and my throat and that I am

18415-491: Was called "one of the worst constructed poems written in English" and "the most disorganized poem ever written". Nonetheless, in 1969 the Modern Language Association established a prize named after Lowell, awarded annually for "an outstanding literary or linguistic study, a critical edition of an important work, or a critical biography." Lowell's poem " The Present Crisis ", an early work that addressed

18560-856: Was changing after Longfellow; instead of teaching languages directly, Lowell would supervise the department and deliver two lecture courses per year on topics of his own choosing. Lowell accepted the appointment, with the proviso that he should have a year of study abroad. He set sail on June 4 of that year, leaving his daughter Mabel in the care of a governess named Frances Dunlap. Abroad, he visited Le Havre , Paris, and London, spending time with friends including Story, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning , and Leigh Hunt . Primarily, however, Lowell spent his time abroad studying languages, particularly German, which he found difficult. He complained: "The confounding genders ! If I die I shall have engraved on my tombstone that I died of der, die, das , not because I caught them but because I couldn't." He returned to

18705-683: Was delivered on July 21, 1865, after a 48-hour writing binge. Lowell had high hopes for his performance but was overshadowed by the other notables presenting works that day, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes . "I did not make the hit I expected", he wrote, "and am ashamed at having been tempted again to think I could write poetry , a delusion from which I have been tolerably free these dozen years." Despite his personal assessment, friends and other poets sent many letters to Lowell congratulating him. Emerson referred to his poem's "high thought & sentiment" and James Freeman Clarke noted its "grandeur of tone". Lowell later expanded it with

18850-490: Was described as a movement against classical and realistic theories of literature, a contrast to the rationality of the Age of Enlightenment . It elevated medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived to be from the medieval period. It also emphasized folk art, nature and an epistemology based on nature, which included human activity conditioned by nature in the form of language, custom and usage. Romanticism in Poland

18995-516: Was elected the poet of the class of 1838 and, as was tradition, was asked to recite an original poem on Class Day, the day before Commencement on July 17, 1838. He was suspended, however, and not allowed to participate. Instead, his poem was printed and made available thanks to subscriptions paid by his classmates. He had composed the poem in Concord , where he had been exiled by the Harvard faculty to

19140-520: Was felt in theatre, poetry, prose fiction. In a 1983 book about the 16th century Catholic poet Jean de La Ceppède , English poet Keith Bosley wrote that Agrippa d'Aubigné , "the epic poet of the Protestant cause", during the French Wars of Religion , "was forgotten until the Romantics rediscovered him." The effect of the romantic movement would continue to be felt in the latter half of

19285-425: Was further complicated by his father becoming deaf in his old age, and the deteriorating mental state of his sister Rebecca, who sometimes went a week without speaking. He again cut himself off from others, becoming reclusive at Elmwood, and his private diaries from this time period are riddled with the initials of his wife. On March 10, 1854, for example, he wrote: "Dark without & within. M.L. M.L. M.L." Longfellow,

19430-488: Was granted a salary of $ 17,500 with about $ 3,500 for expenses. While serving in this capacity, he addressed an importation of allegedly diseased cattle and made recommendations that predated the Pure Food and Drug Act . Queen Victoria commented that she had never seen an ambassador who "created so much interest and won so much regard as Mr. Lowell". Lowell held this role until the close of Chester A. Arthur 's presidency in

19575-543: Was in poor health, and the couple moved to Philadelphia shortly after their marriage, thinking that her lungs could heal there. In Philadelphia, he became a contributing editor for the Pennsylvania Freeman , an abolitionist newspaper. In the spring of 1845, the Lowells returned to Cambridge to make their home at Elmwood. They had four children, though only one (Mabel, born 1847) survived past infancy. Blanche

19720-410: Was influenced by Swedenborgianism , a Spiritualism -infused form of Christianity founded by Emanuel Swedenborg , causing Frances Longfellow (wife of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) to mention that "he has been long in the habit of seeing spirits". He composed his poetry rapidly when inspired by an "inner light" but could not write to order. He subscribed to the common nineteenth-century belief that

19865-500: Was later appointed ambassador to the Court of St. James's . He spent his last years in Cambridge in the same estate where he was born, and died there in 1891. Lowell believed that the poet played an important role as a prophet and critic of society. He used poetry for reform, particularly in abolitionism. However, his commitment to the anti-slavery cause wavered over the years, as did his opinion on African-Americans. He attempted to emulate

20010-480: Was meant to boil up from serious, contemplative reflection over the interaction of humans with their environment. Although many stress the notion of spontaneity in Romantic poetry, the movement was still greatly concerned with the difficulty of composition and of translating these emotions into poetic form. Indeed, Coleridge, in his essay On Poesy or Art , sees art as "the mediatress between, and reconciler of nature and man". Such an attitude reflects what might be called

20155-527: Was not a grower—he was a builder. He built poems: he didn't put in the seed, and water the seed, and send down his sun—letting the rest take care of itself: he measured his poems—kept them within formula." Fellow fireside poet John Greenleaf Whittier praised Lowell by writing two poems in his honor and calling him "our new Theocritus " and "one of the strongest and manliest of our writers–a republican poet who dares to speak brave words of unpopular truth". British author Thomas Hughes referred to Lowell as one of

20300-631: Was not strong, especially if they were asked to free a spouse or child. Even so, he did not always fully agree with the followers of the movement. The majority of these people, he said, "treat ideas as ignorant persons do cherries. They think them unwholesome unless they are swallowed, stones and all." Lowell depicted Southerners very unfavorably in his second collection of The Biglow Papers but, by 1865, admitted that Southerners were "guilty only of weakness" and, by 1868, said that he sympathized with Southerners and their viewpoint on slavery. Enemies and friends of Lowell alike questioned his vacillating interest in

20445-411: Was opened so that her daughter Mabel could see her face while Lowell "leaned for a long while against a tree weeping", according to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his wife, who were in attendance. In 1855, Lowell oversaw the publication of a memorial volume of his wife's poetry, with only fifty copies for private circulation. Despite his self-described "naturally joyous" nature, life for Lowell at Elmwood

20590-476: Was pioneering work within American literature. For example, Lowell's character Hosea Biglow says in verse: Ef you take a sword an' dror it, An go stick a feller thru, Guv'ment aint to answer to it, God'll send the bill to you. Lowell is considered one of the fireside poets , a group of writers from New England in the 1840s who all had a substantial national following and whose work was often read aloud by

20735-492: Was praised for these lectures. Francis James Child said that Lowell, whom he deemed was typically "perverse", was able to "persist in being serious contrary to his impulses and his talents". While his series was still in progress, Lowell was offered the Smith Professorship of Modern Languages at Harvard, a post vacated by Longfellow, at an annual salary of $ 1,200, though he never applied for it. The job description

20880-487: Was the poet and critic Richard Henry Dana Sr. As a boy, Dana studied in Cambridgeport under a strict schoolmaster named Samuel Barrett, alongside fellow Cambridge native and future writer James Russell Lowell . Barrett was infamous as a disciplinarian who punished his students for any infraction by flogging. He also often pulled students by their ears and, on one such occasion, nearly pulled Dana's ear off, causing

21025-478: Was the product of intellect and reason, while Romantic poetry is more the product of emotion. Romantic poetry at the beginning of the nineteenth century was a reaction against the set standards, conventions of eighteenth-century poetry. According to William J. Long , "[T]he Romantic movement was marked, and is always marked, by a strong reaction and protest against the bondage of rule and custom which in science and theology as well as literature, generally tend to fetter

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