the whole conflict thus far had been stern and solemn in the extreme.
This had prevented much popular enthusiasm, except in natures as earnest
as their own; and many men who had before been indifferent to the
subject were at once attracted and interested by the raillery and satire
of Lowell. They enjoyed his keen thrusts, and began to talk with one
another about them, and unconsciously imbibed a little of their spirit.
Some of the more jingling rhymes caught the ear of the street, and in a
little while

"John P.
Robinson he
Sez he wun't vote for Governor B."

was heard on every hand. And even across the sea, we are told,
travellers would hear some one repeating the catch,--

"But John P.
Robinson he
Sez they didn't know everything down in Judee."

The first series of these papers undoubtedly had a powerful influence in
forming public opinion upon the subject of the abolition of slavery; and
the second series exerted a still more potent influence in favor of
sustaining the government in the prosecution of the war, and in urging
it to the emancipation of the slaves. Early in the war he wrote,--

"It's slavery that's the fangs and thinkin' head,
And ef you want salvation, cresh it dead."

He suffered much in his own family from the war, three of his favorite
nephews being killed,--one at Winchester, one at Seven Pines, and one at
Ball's Bluff. Another relative was the gallant Colonel Shaw, who led the
colored troops in the assault on Fort Wagner, and who there gave up his
heroic life. In the "Commemoration Ode"--the greatest poem which Lowell
has ever written--he celebrates the death of these young heroes in
fitting verse, and gives their names to immortality. The effect of the
poem at the time was simply overpowering, so many other hearts were
bleeding with his own; and it at once took its place as one of the
noblest poems in the language. The poet William W. Story came over from
Rome purposely to hear Lowell deliver this ode, and felt abundantly paid
for the journey by the pathos and sublimity of the scene, which has
seldom been equalled in this country.

Mr. Underwood tells us that--

"In person Lowell is of medium height, rather slender, but sinewy
and active. His movements are deliberate rather than impulsive,
indicating what athletes call staying qualities. His hair at
maturity was dark auburn or ruddy chestnut in