James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowellwas an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets. These poets usually used conventional forms and meters in their poetry, making them suitable for families entertaining at their fireside...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth22 February 1819
CountryUnited States of America
A word once vulgarized can never be rehabilitated.
woods longing silent
The nunneries of silent nooks, the murmured longing of the wood.
heart suffering woe
Not suffering, but faint heart, is worst of woes.
winter swans snow
The stiff rails were softened to swan's-down, and still fluttered down the snow.
gold wealth virtue
Old gold has a civilizing virtue which new gold must grow old to be capable of secreting.
passion fate soul
The purely Great Whose soul no siren passion could unsphere, Thou nameless, now a power and mixed with fate.
real vehemence greater
The greater your real strength and power, the quieter it will be exercised.
song bird crow
All birds during the pairing season become more or less sentimental, and murmur soft nothings in a tone very unlike the grinding-organ repetition and loudness of their habitual song. The crow is very comical as a lover; and to hear him trying to soften his croak to the proper Saint-Preux standard has something the effect of a Mississippi boatman quoting Tennyson.
tests genius common
To make the common marvelous is the test of genius.
rights liberty dare
They have rights who dare maintain them.
stars truth earth
Get but the truth once uttered, and 'tis like A star new-born that drops into its place And which, once circling in its placid round, Not all the tumult of the earth can shake.
freedom feet steps
Slow are the steps of freedom, but her feet turn never backward.
men political democracy
Democracy is that form of society, no matter what its political classification, in which every man has a chance and knows that he has it.
life-lesson thinking sorrow
The first lesson of life is to burn our own smoke; that is, not to inflict on outsiders our personal sorrows and petty morbidness, not to keep thinking of ourselves as exceptional cases.