About James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell (Cambridge, February 22, 1819 - Cambridge, August 12, 1891) was an American romantic poet, critic, satirist, writer, diplomat and abolitionist, included in the list of characters of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. He is also associated with the fireside poets. He graduated from Harvard in 1838, in law, but soon devoted himself to his poetic passion. Engaged with his wife, Maria Bianca, in the development of the abolition of slavery in the United States, he uses poetry as a vehicle of struggle to inform and educate the public. In 1841, He published his first poetry collection A Year's Life, a book dedicated to his wife. During this year, he also founded with a friend, Robert Carter, a monthly literary journal, The Pioneer, to which Lowell devoted some of his poems, the others being published in various journals.Early in 1846, he became a correspondent for the London Daily news. In the spring of 1848, he linked up with the National Anti-Slavery Standard of New York, agreeing to send his weekly articles and poems. His articles are written as a series of incisive, witty and sometimes prophetic diatribes. It was a time of great activity for Lowell, as evidenced by the four books published in 1848: the second series of Poems, containing among others his famous poems Columbus, An Indian Summer Reverie, At the Dandelion and The Fairy Child.
A Fable for Critics was one of Lowell's most popular works, published anonymously in 1848: a book in which, like Leigh Hunt's The Poets' Feast, he describes in witty verse and a good-natured sense of satire contemporary American writers. Sir Launfal's Vision, a romantic story inspired by Arthurian legends is also one of his most popular poems. Finally, The Biglow Papers was also a denunciation of the Mexican–American War and war in general. This poem describes, in a rustic expression, the organized recruitment for the very unpopular war between the United States and Mexico, which leads to the annexation of Texas.
In the last few months of his life, Lowell struggled with gout, sciatica in his left leg, and chronic nausea; by the summer of 1891, doctors believed that Lowell had cancer in his kidneys, liver, and lungs. He died on August 12, 1891, at Elmwood.
Browse all poems and texts published on James Russell Lowell
He composed his poetry rapidly when inspired by an inner light but could not write to order. He subscribed to the common nineteenth-century belief that the poet was a prophet but went further, linking religion, nature, and poetry, as well as social reform. In 1849, Lowell said of himself, "I am the first poet who has endeavored to express the American Idea, and I shall be popular by and by."
