14. Unventurous throng: The vast majority of commonplace beings who neither achieve nor attempt deeds of "high emprise."
16. Wisest Scholars: Many students who had returned from the war were in the audience, welcomed back by their revered mother, their Alma Mater.
20. Peddling: Engaging in small, trifling interests. Lowell's attitude toward science is that of Wordsworth, when he speaks of the dry-souled scientist as one who is all eyes and no heart, "One that would peep and botanize Upon his mother's grave."
21. The pseudo-science of astrology, seeking to tell commonplace fortunes by the stars.
25-26. Clear fame: Compare Milton's Lycidas:
"Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
To scorn delights and live laborious days."
32. Half-virtues: Is Lowell disparaging the virtues of peace and home in comparison with the heroic virtues of war? Or are these "half-virtues" contrasted with the loftier virtue, the devotion to Truth?
34. That stern device: The seal of Harvard College, chosen by its early founders, bears the device of a shield with the word Ve-ri-tas (truth) upon three open books.
46. Sad faith: Deep, serious faith, or there may be a slight touch of irony in the word, with a glance at the gloomy faith of early puritanism and its "lifeless creed" (l. 62).
62. Lifeless creed: Compare Tennyson's: