JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 427 



moral evil, which foretold the direction of his later work, and gave 

 some hint of its abundance. 



In 1841 he collected the poems which he had written and sometimes 

 contributed to periodicals into a volume entitled " A Year's Life," and 

 inscribed in a veiled dedication to his future wife. In hopes of better- 

 ing his fortune, and in obedience to the instinct which most young men 

 of letters have, he undertook with Robert Carter the publication of a 

 literary journal, "The Pioneer," which died under their inexperienced 

 hands in three numbers. He began also to turn his studies in dra- 

 matic and early poetic literature to account, and after printing a portion 

 in Nathan Hale's " Miscellany " published, in 1844, " Conversations on 

 some of the Old Poets." In the same year he again collected his poetic 

 work into a volume of " Poems." The difference between the two 

 volumes of poems, though separated by three years only, is marked. 

 Few of the verses from "A Year's Life" are included in the poet's 

 final collection of his writings, few are omitted from " Poems." One 

 poem in the earlier volume, " Irene," is conspicuous as a poetic portrait 

 of the figure of peace which had come into his somewhat turbulent 

 spiritual life, but the volume as a whole is characterized by vague 

 sentimentalism and restless beating of half-grown wings. Three years 

 later, some of this same immaturity is discoverable, but with the poems 

 which wander in somewhat unmeaning ways are those spirited adventures 

 like " Rhcecus," "The Shepherd of King Admetus," and " Prometheus," 

 which denote the growing consciousness of positive poetic power, and 

 also those stirring Sonnets to Wendell Phillips and J. R. Giddings, and 

 the lines entitled " A Glance behind the Curtain," which disclose a new 

 passion leaping up as the champion of truth and righteousness. It is 

 noticeable, too, that in the first volume there is no trace of humor and 

 scarcely any singular felicity of phrase; in the second, wit and humor 

 begin to play a little on the surface. In " Conversations," where the 

 familiar form gives freer scope, there is a gayety of speech which inti- 

 mates the spontaneity of the man and anticipates the rich fruitage of 

 later years. In all these books, however, there is good evidence of the 

 rapid growth which was taking place in Lowell's intellectual and moral 

 life, a coming to his own which it would take only some strong occasion 

 to make sure. 



This occasion was the Mexican War, with the greater contest which 

 flamed up with it over the encroachments of slavery. Lowell and 

 his wife, who brought a fervid antislavery temper as part of her 

 marriage portion, were both contributors to the " Liberty Bell," and 

 Lowell was a frequent- contributor to the " Antislavery Standard," 



