James Russell Lowell, in whom we see the somewhat rare combination of the wise and thoughtful man of affairs and the successful literary artist, was born at Cambridge, New England on February 23, 1819.
Lowell is essential American as a poet, and cosmopolitan as a prose writer. For this reason his verse is less appreciated across the water than is his prose, and in popularity he is certainly less appealing than Longfellow, Poe, Whitman, are even Holmes.
His most considerable productions in verse are the wise and wit FABLE FOR CRITICS -on American poets and poetry; The stirring COMMEMORATION ODE and other memorial poems, especially the ode UNDER THE OLD ELM - celebrating the 100th anniversary of Washington's command of the Revolutionary Army. A passionate love of country animates Lowell's best verse. when the matters with which he deals are of more universal interest- the stock -pot of poetic art- he is less fresh, less original, but his poetry is always virile and intelligent, and his later work especially finished and impressive in its Art.
Lowell's powers are fairly evenly distributed between verse and prose. An admirable letter-writer, a fresh and vigorous publicist, a suggestive literary critic, a cultured and virile poet; In short, perhaps the best all round man in American Letters.
The following is a piece of his verse from COMMEMORATION ODE
ABRAHAM LINCOLN https://allpoetry.com/poem/8546777-Abraham-Lincoln-by-James-Russell-Lowell
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