James Russell Lowell

The First SnowfallPage 272.

Biography• 1819-1891 Both born and died in Cambridge,

Massachusetts• American poet, critic, essayist, editor and diplomat• Graduated from Harvard in 1838 with a law degree• Wrote critical essays against slavery in The Atlantic

Monthly, the newspaper he was editor for • Married Maria White, a poet, who was an inspiration for

uplifting and cheerful feelings in his writings• 1853: ¾ of his children, and his wife die

– His writing was negatively effected

Fireside Poet• Did not write to impress other writers, wrote for fun.• Stories/ poems were told around the fire, “Story time”

writing• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant,

James Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier

• 19th century American Poets from New England• Romantic Poetry- English themes, meters and imagery• Romanticism: feelings, nature and imagination vs. logic

The First Snowfall

Page 272

Theme: Nature is Healing

• Again I looked at the snowfall, And thought of the leaden sky That arched o'er our first great sorrow, When that mound was heaped so high.

I remembered the gradual patience That fell from that cloud like snow, Flake by flake, healing and hiding The scar of our deep-plunged woe.

Theme: Love your Children while you have them.

• “Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her; And she, kissing back, could not know That my kiss was given to her sister, Folded close under deepening snow.”

Imagery

• "Flake by flake, healing and hiding/The scar that renewedour woe,"

• "And the sudden flurries of snowbirds/Like brown leaveswhirling by,"

Symbolism

• Snow : innocence of his daughter who died

• The color white: purity• "The snow had begun in the gloamingAnd busily all the nightHad been heaping field and highway”Highway: the destination after life, heaven.

Citations

• http://www.slideshare.net/spillwd/fireside-poetry

• http://www.helium.com/items/331458-fireside-poets-in-19th-c-britain