Ther''s nothin' wuss, 'less 't is to set

A martyr-prem'um upon jawrin': Teapots git dangerous, ef you shet

Their lids down on 'em with Fort War

ren.

'Bout long enough it's ben discussed
Who sot the magazine afire,
An' whether, ef Bob Wickliffe bust,

"I would scare us more or blow us higher.

D'ye s'pose the Gret Foreseer's plan

Wuz settled fer him in town-meetin' ?
Or thet ther' 'd ben no Fall o' Man,
Ef Adam 'd on'y bit a sweetin'?

Oh, Jon'than, ef you want to be
A rugged chap agin an' hearty,
Go fer wutever 'll hurt Jeff D.,

Nut wut 'll boost up ary party.
Here's hell broke loose, an' we lay flat
With half the univarse a-singein',
Till Sen'tor This an' Gov'nor Thet
Stop squabblin' fer the garding-ingin.

It's war we 're in, not politics;

It's systems wrastlin' now, not parties; An' victory in the eend 'll fix

Where longest will an' truest heart is. An' wut's the Guv'ment folks about? Tryin' to hope ther' 's nothin' doin', An' look ez though they did n't doubt Sunthin' pertickler wuz a-brewin'.

20

30

40

Ole Hick'ry would n't ha' stood see-saw
'Bout doin' things till they wuz done
with,

He'd smashed the tables o' the Law
In time o' need to load his gun with;
He could n't see but jest one side, -
Ef his, 't wuz God's, an' thet wuz plenty;
An' so his Forrards!' multiplied

An army's fightin' weight by twenty. 80

But this 'ere histin', creak, creak, creak,
Your cappen's heart up with a derrick,
This tryin' to coax a lightnin'-streak
Out of a half-discouraged hay-rick,
This hangin' on mont' arter mont'

Fer one sharp purpose 'mongst the twitter,

I tell ye, it doos kind o' stunt

The peth and sperit of a critter.

In six months where 'll the People be,
Ef leaders look on revolution

Ez though it wuz a cup o' tea,

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Jest social el'ments in solution? This weighin' things doos wal enough When war cools down, an' comes to writin';

the Democratic party, and a bitter opponent of Lincoln. He had at this time been recently elected governor of New York on a platform that denounced almost every measure the government had found it necessary to adopt for the suppression of the Rebellion. His influence contributed not a little to the encouragement of that spirit which inspired the Draft Riot in the city of New York in July, 1863. (F. B. Williams, in Riverside and Cambridge Editions.)

I hev been gladder o' sech things

Than cocks o' spring or bees o' clover, They filled my heart with livin' springs, But now they seem to freeze 'em over; Sights innercent ez babes on knee,

70

Peaceful ez eyes o' pastur'd cattle, Jes' coz they be so, seem to me To rile me more with thoughts o' battle.

Indoors an' out by spells I try;
Ma'am Natur keeps her spin-wheel
goin',

But leaves my natur' stiff and dry
Ez fiel's o' clover arter mowin';
An' her jes' keepin' on the same,

Calmer 'n a clock, an' never carin',
An' findin' nary thing to blame,

Is wus than ef she took to swearin'.

80

Snow-flakes come whisperin' on the pane The charm makes blazin' logs so plea

sant,

But I can't hark to wut they 're say'n',
With Grant or Sherman ollers present;
The chimbleys shudder in the gale,
Thet lulls, then suddin takes to flappin'
Like a shot hawk, but all 's ez stale
To me ez so much sperit-rappin'.

Under the yaller-pines I house,

When sunshine makes 'em all sweet-
scented,

An' hear among their furry boughs
The baskin' west-wind purr contented,
While 'way o'erhead, ez sweet an' low
Ez distant bells thet ring for meetin',
The wedged wil' geese their bugles blow,
Further an' further South retreatin'.

90

Hahnsome an' brave an' not tu knowin'? I set an' look into the blaze

climbin',

Ez long 'z it lives, in shinin' ways,
An' half despise myself for rhymin'.

1 Of Lowell's three nephews one, William Lowell Putnam, was killed, and another, James Jackson Lowell, seriously wounded, at the battle of Ball's Bluff, the same battle in which Holmes's son was wounded (see My Hunt After the Captain '); the third, Charles Russell Lowell, died October 20, 1864, of wounds received the previous day at the battle of Cedar Creek. James Jackson Lowell recovered from the wounds received at Ball's Bluff, but was killed in the battle of Seven Pines. See Lowell's Letters, vol. i, pp. 162166; and Scudder's Life of Lowell, vol. ii, pp. 29-31.

See also the note on Emerson's 'Sacrifice,' p. 95, note 1; and Colonel Henry Lee Higginson's Four Addresses, there referred to. Emerson wrote to Carlyle, October 15, 1870: The Lowell race, again, in our War yielded three or four martyrs so able and tender and true, that James Russell Lowell cannot allude to them in verse or prose but the public is melted anew.' (Carlyle-Emerson Correspondence, vol. ii, p. 374.) See also Lowell's 'Commemoration Ode,' p. 490, and Under the Old Elm,' p. 512, with the passages from his letters there quoted.

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