can!"

James Russell Lowell was animated by a well-defined purpose which he
described in the following lines:

"It may be glorious to write
Thoughts that make glad the two or three
High souls like those far stars that come in sight
Once in a century.

But better far it is to speak
One simple word which, now and then
Shall waken their free nature in the weak
And friendless sons of men.

To write some earnest verse or line
Which, seeking not the praise of art,

Shall make a clearer faith and manhood shine
In the untutored heart."

His very accomplishments made it difficult for him to reach this aim,
since his poetry does not move "the untutored heart" so readily as does
that of Longfellow or Whittier. It is, on the whole, too deeply burdened
with learning and too individual in expression to fulfil his highest
desire. Of his early poems the most generally known is probably "The
Vision of Sir Launfal," in which a strong moral purpose is combined with
lines of beautiful nature description:

"And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days.

Two works by which he will be permanently remembered show a deeper and
more effective Lowell. "The Biglow Papers" are the most successful of
all the American poems which attempt to improve conditions by means of
humor. Although they refer in the main to the situation at the time of
the Mexican War, they deal with such universal political traits that they
may be applied to almost any age. They are written in a Yankee dialect
which, it is asserted, was never spoken, but which enhances the humor, as
in "What Mr. Robinson Thinks." Lowell's tribute to Lincoln occurs in the
Ode which he wrote to commemorate the Harvard students who enlisted in
the Civil War. After dwelling on the search for truth which should be
the aim of every college student, he turns to the delineation of
Lincoln's character in a eulogy of great beauty. Clear in analysis,
far-sighted in judgment, and loving in sentiment, he expresses that
opinion of Lincoln which has become a part of the web of American
thought. His is no hurried judgment, but the calm statement of opinion
which is to-day accepted by the world:

"They all are gone, and, standing