“Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave,
    But through those constellations go
    That shed celestial influence on the brave. 
    If life were but to draw this dusty breath
    That doth our wits enslave,
    And with the crowd to hurry to and fro,
    Seeking we know not what, and finding death,
    These did unwisely; but if living be,
    As some are born to know,
    The power to ennoble, and inspire
    In other souls our brave desire
    For fruit, not leaves, of Time’s immortal tree,
    These truly live, our thought’s essential fire,
    And to the saner,” etc.

Lowell’s remark in The Cathedral, that “second thoughts are prose,” might be fairly applied to this emendation.  Fortunately, the passage was never inserted in the ode.

255.  Orient:  The east, morning; hence youth, aspiration, hope.  The figure is continued in l. 271.

262.  Who now shall sneer?  In a letter to Mr. J.B.  Thayer, who had criticized this strophe, Lowell admits “that there is a certain narrowness in it as an expression of the popular feeling as well as my own.  I confess I have never got over the feeling of wrath with which (just after the death of my nephew Willie) I read in an English paper that nothing was to be hoped of an army officered by tailors’ apprentices and butcher boys.”  But Lowell asks his critic to observe that this strophe “leads naturally” to the next, and “that I there justify” the sentiment.

265.  Roundhead and Cavalier:  In a general way, it is said that New England was settled by the Roundheads, or Puritans, of England, and the South by the Cavaliers or Royalists.

272-273.  Plantagenets:  A line of English kings, founded by Henry II, called also the House of Anjou, from their French origin.  The House of Hapsburg is the Imperial family of Austria.  The Guelfs were one of the great political parties in Italy in the Middle Ages, at long and bitter enmity with the Ghibelines.

323.  With this passage read the last two stanzas of Mr. Hosea Biglow to the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly, beginning: 

    “Come, Peace! not like a mourner bowed
      For honor lost and dear ones wasted,
    But proud, to meet a people proud,
      With eyes that tell of triumphs tasted!”

328.  Helm:  The helmet, the part of ancient armor for protecting the head, used here as the symbol of war.

343.  Upon receiving the news that the war was ended, Lowell wrote to his friend, Charles Eliot Norton:  “The news, my dear Charles, is from Heaven.  I felt a strange and tender exaltation.  I wanted to laugh and I wanted to cry, and ended by holding my peace and feeling devoutly thankful.  There is something magnificent in having a country to love.”

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS

The following questions are taken from recent examination papers of the Examination Board established by the Association of Schools and Colleges in the Middle States and Maryland, and of the Regents of the State of New York.  Generally only one question on The Vision of Sir Launfal is included in the examination paper for each year.