The Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell. With an Intro-
duction by Thomas Hughes, Q.C. (Macmillan and Co.)—A com- plete collection of Mr. Lowell's verse, grave and gay, should be a most welcome addition to the " poet's corner " of every library. The sympathetic introduction which Mr. Hughes, a friend and admirer of many years' standing, has prefixed, gives it additional value. There are personal recollections, of which we can only say that we wish they had been more copious ; and there is a detailed criticism, which is evidently the outcome of an intimate knowledge and of the reflections of many years. Mr. Hughes dates back his first acquaintance with Lowell's work to the year 1850, when a friend, Mr. J. M. Ludlow, brought him a review of " The Biglow Papers " which had appeared in the Morning Chronicle. "I felt at once," he writes, " that a new star had risen above the literary horizon—at least for me." " The Vision of Sir Launfal," which had already appeared in this country, was the next of Lowell's works that he made acquaintance with. Nine years afterwards, Mr. Hughes wrote a preface for an English edition of The Biglow Papers." This led to a correspondence which has been, he says, " an unfailing source of joy and strength for more than thirty years ;" and eleven years later on, when Mr. Hughes paid a visit to the States, to a personal acquaintance. A description, only too brief, of the poet as he was in his home follows, and then another of his first visit to this country. It is curious to read that he was then "somewhat cool and reserved in his bearing, though, of course, always gentle and courteous (which he could not help being)." He had not at that time learnt to love this country with that strong affection which afterwards made his countrymen almost jealous. Mr. Hughes attributes the change to what is doubt- less the right cause. In 1872, when Lowell first visited England, the cold, not to say hostile attitude so generally taken here towards the Northern cause, had not been forgotten, could not, indeed, have been forgotten by one who, like Lowell, had borne so much of the burden and heat of the day. This soreness wore off, and during the last decade of his life he did not hesitate to call England "home." We shall not attempt on the present occasion any independent criticism of Lowell's poetry, and we shall cer- tainly not attempt to review that which Mr. Hughes has given. It will suffice to say that the reader could not have a better- informed or more competent guide. We will content ourselves with quoting a passage in which he describes what he thinks to be a qualification for this task :—
"As I am volunteering for guide, it is only fair that I should state frankly why I want to take others along the road I have travelled myself, and which by this time I know and love so well. It is then, in a word, because Lowell is, of all the poets of our time, the one on whom the spiritual discouragement and disappointment so characteristic of the last half of our century—the yearning for a faith which seems to have vanished past the hope of recall—has taken the lightest hold. To some extent this is true of other American poets, of Longfellow and Whittier for instance ; and I suppose there must be something in the air of a new country which, in the realm of poetry, keeps off or subdues the contagion of the old world. At any rate, the darkness, or twilight, which gathers round two of the three cardinal virtues—faith and hope —of our best English singers will not be found in this volume. It is not that Lowell has not felt the shadow, but that he has been able to get from under it. He has been in the cloud, but has passed through it into the clear sunshine beyond and behind it."
There is much in this volume that will be new to most English readers. Comparing its contents with the companion edition, as it may be called, of "Matthew Arnold's Poems," we should say that they are considerably more than double in bulk.
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