Lowell entered Harvard in his sixteenth year and was graduated in his
twentieth, during which time he says he read everything except the
books in the college course. It was during these years, however, that
he studied the great poets of the world, while romances, travels,
voyages, and history were added as a flavor to his self-chosen course
of study.

Perhaps he showed the true bent of his mind in his boyhood poem,
addressed to the old horse-chestnuts, whose arms twined themselves
around his study-room at home. He was class poet for his year, but
was not allowed to read his poem, as he was at the time temporarily
suspended from the college. In this poem Lowell made good-natured fun
of Carlyle, Emerson, and other philosophers, whose thought was just
beginning to influence their generation, thus hinting the power which
made him later the most successful humorist of America.

After leaving college Lowell studied law and was admitted to the
bar, a profession which he almost immediately saw would make him
only miserable, and which he soon left. In his twenty-second year he
published his first book of verse under the title _A Year's Life_, a
volume which was mainly inspired by his admiration for the woman who
afterward became his wife, and which gives indication of the power
which was developed later, though in the after-editions of his works
the poet discarded most of the productions of that time. A little
later Lowell conceived the idea of starting a magazine, which should
rival in value and fame the celebrated Philadelphia magazines, which
were believed to stand for the highest literary art in America. The
magazine was named _The Pioneer_, and its editorship and ownership
were shared with a friend. It appeared in January, 1843, and ran
for three months, ending in dismal failure, though the contributors
numbered such names as Poe, Elizabeth Barrett, Whittier, and the
artist Story. It was not until twelve years later, when his own fame
was well established, that Lowell undertook the editorship of another
magazine, and put to practical use his reserve talent for adapting and
selecting for popular favor the best literary work of the time.

A year after the failure of _The Pioneer_, Lowell published a second
volume of poems. In this collection occur the poems _The Legend of
Brittany_; _Prometheus_, a poem founded on the old Greek myth of
Prometheus, who incurs the wrath of Jupiter by giving fire to mankind;
_The Heritage_,