144. Lowell's own education was four-story: grammar school, high school, college, law school.
165. A good application of the old story of the man who killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.
157. Cap-sheaf: the top sheaf on a stack and hence the completion of any act.
165. Lowell, himself, seems to be talking in these last lines, and not young Hosea Biglow.
209. English Civil War (1642-1649), which ended in the establishment of the Commonwealth.
241. As Adam's fall "Brought death into the world, and all our woe," it was considered by all Puritans as an event of highest importance; most men agree that their wives' bonnets stand at the other end of the scale.
2&I. Crommle: Oliver Cromwell, under whom the English fought for a Commonwealth. See note on line 219.
270. After the short period of the Commonwealth, Charles II became ruler of England (1660-1685).
272. Millennium: a period when all government will be free from wickedness.
AN INDIAN-SUMMER REVERIE