The two
passages woven together appear in the essay _Cambridge Thirty Years
Ago_, as a quotation. An early poem on _The Bobolink_, delightful and
widely popular, was omitted from later editions of his poems by
Lowell, perhaps because to his maturer taste the theme was too much
moralized in his early manner. "Shelley and Wordsworth," says Mr.
Brownell, "have not more worthily immortalized the skylark than Lowell
has the bobolink, its New England congener."

134. Another change: The description now returns to the marshes.

147. Simond's hill: In the essay _Cambridge Thirty Years Ago_ Lowell
describes the village as seen from the top of this hill.

159-161. An allusion to the Mexican War, against which Lowell was
directing the satire of the _Biglow Papers_.

174-182. Compare the winter pictures in Whittier's _Snowbound_.

177. Formal candles: Candles lighted for some form or ceremony, as
in a religious service.

192. Stonehenge: Stonehenge on Salisbury plain in the south of
England is famous for its huge blocks of stone now lying in confusion,
supposed to be the remains of an ancient Druid temple.

207. Sanding: The continuance of the metaphor in "higher waves" are
"whelming." With high waves the sand is brought in upon the land,
encroaching upon its limits.

209. Muses' factories: The buildings of Harvard College.

218. House-bespotted swell: Lowell notes with some resentment the
change from nature's simple beauties to the pretentiousness of wealth
shown in incongruous buildings.

220. Cits: Contracted from citizens. During the French Revolution,
when all titles were abolished, the term _citizen_ was applied to
every one, to denote democratic simplicity and equality.

223. Gentle Allston: Washington Allston, the celebrated painter,
whom Lowell describes as he remembered him in the charming essay
_Cambridge Thirty Years Ago_.

225. Virgilium vidi tantum: I barely saw Virgil--caught a glimpse of
him--a phrase applied to any passing glimpse of greatness.

227. Undine-like: Undine, a graceful water nymph, is the heroine of
the charming little romantic story by De la Motte Fouque.

234. The village blacksmith: See Longfellow's famous poem, _The
Village Blacksmith_. The chestnut was cut down in 1876. An arm-chair
made from its wood still stands in the Longfellow house, a gift to
Longfellow from the Cambridge school children.

254. Six old willows: These much-loved trees afforded Lowell a
subject for a later p