Dear ones: Underwood says in his biography of Lowell: "In the
James Russell Lowell
privately printed edition of the poem the names of eight of the poet's
kindred are given. The nearest in blood are the nephews, General
Charles Russell Lowell, killed at Winchester, Lieutenant James Jackson
Lowell, at Seven Pines, and Captain William Lowell Putnam, at Ball's
Bluff. Another relative was the heroic Colonel Robert G. Shaw, who
fell in the assault on Fort Wagner."
As a special memorial of Colonel Shaw, Lowell wrote the poem,
_Memoriae Positum._ With deep tenderness he refers to his nephews in
_"Mr. Hosea Biglow to the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly":_
"Why, hain't I held 'em on my knee?
Didn't I love to see 'em growin',
Three likely lads ez wal could be,
Hahnsome an' brave an' not tu knowin'?
I set an' look into the blaze
Whose natur', jes' like theirn, keeps climbin',
Ez long 'z it lives, in shinin' ways,
An' half despise myself for rhymin'.
"Wut's words to them whose faith an' truth
On War's red techstone rang true metal,
Who ventered life an' love an' youth
For the gret prize o' death in battle?
To him who, deadly hurt, agen
Flashed on afore the charge's thunder,
Tippin' with fire the bolt of men
Thet rived the Rebel line asunder?"