me tired out and to satisfy me entirely as to what was the original of my head and back pains. But whether it is good or not, I am not yet far enough off to say. But do like it, if you can. Fields says it is "splendid," with tears in his eyes but then I read it to him, which is half the battle. I began it as a lyric, but it would be too aphoristic for that, and finally flatly refused to sing at any price. So I submitted, took to pentameters, and only hope the thoughts are good enough to be preserved in the ice of the colder and almost glacier-slow measure. I think I have done well-in some stanzas at least and not wasted words. It is about present matters.' (Lowell's Letters, vol. i, p. 318. Quoted by permission of Messrs. Harper and Brothers.) 1 The only attempt I had ever made at anything like a pastoral (if that may be called an attempt which was the result almost of pure accident) was in 'The Courtin'.' While the Introduction to the First Series was going through the press, I received word from the printer that there was a blank page left which must be filled. I sat down at once and improvised another fictitious notice of the press,' in which, because verse would fill up space more cheaply than prose, I inserted an extract from a supposed ballad of Mr. Biglow. I kept no copy of it, and the printer, as directed, cut it off when the gap was filled. Presently I began to receive letters asking for the rest of it, sometimes for the balance of it. I had none, but to answer such demands, I patched a conclusion upon it in a later edition. Those who had only the first continued to importune me. Afterward, being asked to write it out as an autograph for the Baltimore Sanitary Commission Fair, I added other verses, into some of which I infused a little more sentiment in a homely way, and after a fashion completed it by sketching in the characters and making a connected story. Most likely I have spoiled it, but I shall put it at the end of this Introduction, to answer once for all those kindly importunings. (LowELL, in the Introduction' to the Biglow Papers, 1866.) 'T was kin' o' kingdom-come to look He was six foot o' man, A 1, Clear grit an' human natur', None could n't quicker pitch a ton Nor dror a furrer straighter. He'd sparked it with full twenty gals, 30 Hed squired 'em, danced 'em, druv 'em, But long o' her his veins 'ould run She thought no v'ice hed sech a swing My! when he made Ole Hunderd ring, An' she'd blush scarlit, right in prayer, Thet night, I tell ye, she looked some! She heered a foot, an' knowed it tu, All ways to once her feelins flew He kin' o' l'itered on the mat, Some doubtfle o' the sekle, His heart kep' goin' pity-pat, But hern went pity Zekle. An' yit she gin her cheer a jerk Ez though she wished him furder, An' on her apples kep' to work, Parin' away like murder. 40 50 60 He stood a spell on one foot fust, An' on which one he felt the wust Says he, 'I'd better call agin;' Says she, 'Think likely, Mister:' Thet last word pricked him like a pin, When Ma bimeby upon 'em slips, For she was jes' the quiet kind Whose naturs never vary, Like streams that keep a summer mind Snowhid in Jenooary. The blood clost roun' her heart felt glued Too tight for all expressin', Tell mother see how metters stood, Then her red come back like the tide Down to the Bay o' Fundy, An' all I know is they was cried In meetin' come nex' Sunday. 1848, ?, 1866. No. II 70 80 90 1848, 1866. MASON AND SLIDELL: A YANKEE IDYLL1 I LOVE to start out arter night's begun, 1 In the latter part of 1861 President Davis undertook to send agents or commissioners to England and France to represent the Southern cause. The men chosen were James M. Mason, of Virginia, and John Slidell, of Louisiana. On the 12th of October they left Charleston, eluded the blockading squadron, and landed at Havana. Thence they embarked for St. Thomas on The critters milked an' foddered, gates shet fast, Tools cleaned aginst to-morrer, supper past, An' Nancy darnin' by her ker'sene lamp, - But 't ain't so, ef the mind gits tuckered out. Now, bein' born in Middlesex, you know, There's certin spots where I like best to the British mail-steamer Trent. On the way the Trent was stopped by Captain Wilkes, of the American manof-war San Jacinto, and the Confederate agents were transferred as prisoners to the latter vessel. The British Government at once proclaimed the act 'a great outrage,' and sent a peremptory demand for the release of the prisoners and reparation. At the same time, without waiting for any explanation, it made extensive preparations for hostilities. It seemed and undoubtedly was expedient for the United States to receive Lord Russell's demand as an admission that impressment of British seamen found on board neutral vessels was unwarrantable. Acting on the demand as an admission of the principle so long contended for by the United States, Mr. Seward disavowed the act of Wilkes and released the commissioners. But it was held then and has since been stoutly maintained by many jurists that the true principles of international law will not justify a neutral vessel in transporting the agents of a belligerent on a hostile mission. On the analogy of despatches they should be contraband. The difficulty of amicable settlement at that time, however, lay not so much in the point of law as in the intensity of popular feeling on both sides of the Atlantic. (F. B. Williams, in the Riverside and Cambridge Editions of Lowell's Poetical Works.) See also the long introductory letter of the Rev. Homer Wilbur, in the Cambridge Edition, pp. 228-233, and the Riverside Edition, vol. ii, pp 240-253. Ez I was settin' so, it warn't long sence, An', fact, I thought it was the wind a spell, feel 'T was Concord Bridge a talkin' off to kill 60 |