Fairy tales are made
out of the dreams of the poor." [Footnote: _Democracy and Other
Addresses_, p. 15.]
General Characteristics.--Lowell has written verse which shows sympathetic
treatment of nature. His lines _To the Dandelion_:--
"Dear common flower, that grow'st beside the way,
Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold,
First pledge of blithesome May
Which children pluck, and full of pride uphold
* * * * *
... thou art more dear to me
Than all the prouder summer-blooms may be,"
show rare genuineness of feeling. No one not enthusiastic about nature
would ever have heard her calling to him:--
"To mix his blood with sunshine, and to take
The winds into his pulses."
He invites us in March to watch:--
"The bluebird, shifting his light load of song
From post to post along the cheerless fence,"
and in June to lie under the willows and rejoice with
"The thin-winged swallow, skating on the air."
Another pronounced characteristic which he has in common with the New
England group is nobility of ideals. His poem entitled _For an Autograph_,
voices in one line the settled conviction of his life:--
"Not failure, but low aim, is crime.
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