Creeds: Here used in the broad sense of convictions,
James Russell Lowell
principles, beliefs.
115-118. The construction is faulty in these lines. The two last
clauses should be co-ordinated. The substance of the meaning is: Peace
has her wreath, while the cannon are silent and while the sword
slumbers. Lowell's attention was called to this defective passage by
T.W. Higginson, and he replied: "Your criticism is perfectly just, and
I am much obliged to you for it--though I might defend myself, I
believe, by some constructions even looser in some of the Greek
choruses. But on the whole, when I have my choice, I prefer to make
sense." He then suggested an emendation, which somehow failed to get
into the published poem:
"Ere yet the sharp, decisive word
Redden the cannon's lips, and while the sword."