By a Wonderful Quiz by James Russell Lowell

It’s the sound a drum makes. Lowell takes this from the old nursery rhyme, creating an image that’s both striking and slightly silly. The person in the poem is literally drumming, but on a deeper level, he’s showing off and getting himself pumped up.

It’s a one-line comic portrait of a self-promoter — a person so desperate for attention and applause that he gives it to himself, loudly tooting his own horn while standing on a tub to make sure everyone notices him.

In the slang of the nineteenth century, a "quiz" referred to a quirky, eccentric, or ridiculous person — someone likely to be ridiculed. The title makes it clear from the start that the speaker of this brief performance is meant to be amusing.

It feels like an epigraph or a comic motto — the sort of brief verse Lowell might use for a chapter or a satirical sketch. Whether it’s taken by itself or comes from a bigger work, it functions as a full, standalone joke.

On one level, it reminds us of the nursery rhyme 'Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub.' On another level, a tub served as a popular makeshift platform for street speakers and entertainers — the original soapbox. Lowell layers both meanings to create a more humorous image.

The primary tool here is irony—when someone describes a person as "full of spirit and grace," it seems like a compliment, but it’s directed at someone engaged in something ridiculous. The author also employs onomatopoeia with "rub-a-dub-dub" and references a nursery rhyme to create a rich comic effect using just a handful of words.

It suggests that vanity is its own punchline. The self-promoter is so focused on making a spectacle of himself that he fails to see how absurd he appears. Lowell doesn't need to add commentary — the image of a man drumming for himself on top of a tub conveys it all.