With joy and love of him who sent thee,
And for the [fulfilling sense]
Of that [glad obedience]
Which made thee all that nature meant thee!
NOTES AND QUESTIONS
Biography. James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) came of one of the oldest and most influential New England families. Born in an atmosphere of learning, in the old family home in historic Cambridge, at the very doors of Harvard College, he enjoyed every advantage for culture that inherited tastes, ample means, and convenient opportunity could offer. Besides the facilities of the college near by, his father’s library, in which he roamed at will from his very infancy, was one of the richest in the whole country. It is not strange, then, that he grew to be one of the most scholarly Americans of his time.
After leaving college he studied law and opened an office in Boston. He became deeply interested in the political issues of the times and was thus stirred to his first serious efforts in literature. In 1848 appeared his “Vision of Sir Launfal,” founded upon the legend of the Holy Grail, and one of the most spiritually beautiful poems in any literature. Few patriotic poems surpass his “Commemoration Ode.” Besides his poetical works he wrote many essays and books of travel and of criticism. He succeeded Longfellow in his professorship at Harvard, and was the first editor of the Atlantic Monthly. He served successively as Minister to Spain and to England.
Discussion. 1. In the first stanza, how does the poet account for the violet’s eyes being “full of tears”? 2. To the poet what does the violet represent? 3. What vision does the violet bring to the poet? 4. How does the poet account for the color of the violet? 5. What change in the poet’s feeling is noted in the fourth stanza? 6. From what does the poet say his soul must “take hue”? 7. How does the poet in the last lines of the poem account for the violet’s eyes being “full of tears”?
Phrases