Fagots for a witch: The introduction of this witch element into a
James Russell Lowell
Greek legend rather mars the consistency of the poem. Lowell finally
substituted for the stanza the following:
"Upon an empty tortoise-shell
He stretched some chords, and drew
Music that made men's bosoms swell
Fearless, or brimmed their eyes with dew."
_HEBE_
Lowell suggests in this dainty symbolical lyric his conception of the
poet's inspiration. Hebe was cup-bearer to the gods of Olympus, in
Greek mythology, and poured for them their nectar. She was also the
goddess of eternal youth. By an extension of the symbolism she becomes
goddess of the eternal joyousness of the poetic gift. The "influence
fleet" is the divine afflatus that fills the creative mind of the
poet. But Pegasus cannot be made to work in harness at will. True
inspiration comes only in choice moments. Coy Hebe cannot be wooed
violently. Elsewhere he says of the muse:
"Harass her not; thy heat and stir
But greater coyness breed in her."
"Follow thy life," he says, "be true to thy best self, then Hebe will
bring her choicest ambrosia." That is--
"Make thyself rich, and then the Muse
Shall court thy precious interviews,
Shall take thy head upon her knee,
And such enchantment lilt to thee,
That thou shalt hear the life-blood flow
From farthest stars to grass-blades low."
_TO THE DANDELION_
Four stanzas were added to this poem after its first appearance, the
sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth, but in the finally revised edition
these were cut out, very likely because Lowell regarded them as too
didactic. Indeed the poem is complete and more artistic without them.
"Of Lowell's earlier pieces," says Stedman, "the one which shows the
finest sense of the poetry of nature is that addressed _To the
Dandelion_. The opening phrase ranks with the selectest of Wordsworth
and Keats, to whom imaginative diction came intuitively, and both
thought and language are felicitous throughout. This poem contains
many of its author's peculiar beauties and none of his faults; it was
the outcome of the mood that can summon a rare spirit of art to
express the gladdest thought and most elusive feeling."