Lowell in a
letter to a friend called the poem "a sort of story and more likely to be
popular than what I write about generally." But the best part of the poem
is to be found in the apotheosis of the New England June, in the _Prelude
to Part I.:_--
"And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays."
The poem teaches a noble lesson of sympathy with suffering:--
"Not what we give, but what we share,--
For the gift without the giver is bare;
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,--
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me."
Lowell said that he "scrawled at full gallop" _A Fable for Critics_, which
is a humorous poem of about two thousand long lines, presenting an
unusually excellent criticism of his contemporary authors. In this most
difficult type of criticism, Lowell was not infallible; but a comparison of
his criticisms with the verdicts generally accepted to-day will show his
unusual ability in this field. Not a few of these criticisms remain the
best of their kind, and they serve to focus many of the characteristics of
the authors of the first half of the nineteenth century.
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