We frequently meet, such expressions as:--
"I like the plain all wool o' common-sense
Thet warms ye now, an' will a twelve-month hence."
"Now's the only bird lays eggs o' gold."
"Democracy gives every man
The right to be his own oppressor."
"But Chance is like an amberill,--it don't take twice to lose it."
"An' you've gut to git up airly,
Ef you want to take in God."
In the second series of the _Papers_, there is one of Lowell's best lyrics,
_The Courtin'_. It would be difficult to find another poem which gives
within the compass of four lines a better characterization of many a New
England maiden:--
"... she was jes' the quiet kind
Whose naturs never vary,
Like streams that keep a summer mind,
Snowhid in Jenooary."
This series contains some of Lowell's best nature poetry. We catch rare
glimpses of
"Moonshine an' snow on field an' hill
All silence an' all glisten,"
and we actually see a belated spring
"Toss the fields full o' blossoms, leaves, an' birds."
_The Vision of Sir Launfal_ has been the most widely read of Lowell's
poems. This is the _vision_ of a search for the Holy Grail.
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