Concerning Poe,
Three-fifths of him's genius and two-fifths sheer fudge,
which is perfectly true, but where, except in Poe and Hawthorne, was the man with even two-fifths of genius? That Theocritus, were he living, "would scarce change a line" in the hexameters of Longfellow's "Evangeline," is a criticism dictated by friendship. The mere name of "The Vision of Sir Launfal" suggests the influence of Tennyson. The verse, however, is not imitative; the moral is excellent, and "American children," we learn, have been set to studying "Sir Launfal" in annotated editions, perhaps a pathetic illustration of what may be called "the patriotic fallacy in matters connected with literature".[4]
In 1862-1863, the Civil War gave a motive for new "Biglow Papers," which were deservedly popular in England as well as in America. "The Commemoration Ode" has the same origin, in patriotism and resentment of the European attitude. This Ode is perhaps the seal of Mr. Lowell's diploma as a poet; the third and fifth sections, on the Harvard men who fell in battle, are swift, sonorous, and inspiring. When the poet exclaims, "Tell us not of Plantagenets," the critic can only murmur that he had no notion of telling of persons like Richard Cœur de Lion, "whose thin blood crawls". "'Tis with Lincoln, not with Richard, that the poem has to do," Bret Harte might have said. Indeed the Ode is too long. The ode "Under the Old Elm," practically an ode to Washington, is dignified, and of historic interest; perhaps no other poet has more worthily celebrated "that unblemished gentleman," the national hero; and the last section, addressed to Virginia, has a noble dying fall, like the close of the "Iliad". But not of popular appeal are such lines as these:—
O for a drop of that Cornelian ink
Which gave Agricola dateless length of days.
Here the Professor (who held Longfellow's chair at Harvard) interrupts the poet. The reference is to the brief biography by Tacitus of his father-in-law.
In 1877 Mr. Lowell went as American Minister to Spain, a country always of high attraction to American men of letters, historians, or poets. From 1880 to 1885 Mr. Lowell represented his country at the Court of St. James, and won the hearts of all who had the honour of his friendship. As a speaker on many occasions where literature and art were concerned he was without a rival; in conversation his humour, wit, vast knowledge of men and of books, and his simple spontaneous kindness, endeared him to all. With Shenstone his friends might say, "Quanto minus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui meminisse,"—"Memory of him is dearer than life with others".
Concerning the mass of Mr. Lowell's shorter poems, many of them occasional, it may, perhaps, be said that few of them stamp themselves on the memory by any strong individuality of thought and cadence, and that he did not take Keats's advice to Shelley, "load every rift with ore". In a favourite passage opening:—
And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays.