No other American minister has ever proved a greater success in
England. He was respected for his literary attainments and for his ability
as a speaker. He had the reputation of being one of the very best speakers
in the Kingdom, and he was in much demand to speak at banquets and on
special occasions. Many of his articles and speeches were on political
subjects, the greatest of these being his address on _Democracy_, at
Birmingham, in 1884.
Although his later years showed his great achievements in prose, he did not
cease to produce poetry. The second series of the _Biglow Papers_ was
written during the Civil War. His _Ode Recited at the Harvard
Commemoration_ in 1865, in honor of those who fell in freeing the slave,
"Who in warm life-blood wrote their nobler verse,"
his three memorial poems: (1) _Ode Read at the One Hundredth Anniversary of
the Fight at Concord Bridge_ (1875), (2) _Under the Old Elm_ (1875),
written in commemoration of Washington's taking command of the Continental
forces under that tree, a century before, and (3) _Ode for the Fourth of
July_, 1876, are well-known patriotic American poems.
After returning from England and passing from the excitement of diplomatic
and social life to a quiet New England home, he wrote:--
"I take my reed again and blow it free
Of dusty silence, murmuring, 'Sing to me.
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