2. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL'S VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL AND OTHER POEMS EDITED BY MABEL CALDWELL WILLARD BENJ. H. SANBORN & CO. CHICAGO NEW YORK BOSTON COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY LEACH, SHEWELL, & SANBORN. TYPOGRAPHY BY C. J. PETERS & SON, BOSTON PRESSWORK BY BERWICK & SMITH, PREFACE. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL stands among the foremost of American poets:-perhaps the majority of scholars would say, that for range of subject, for power and grace of expression, and for poetic insight and spiritual vision, he stands as the foremost of American poets. It was, therefore, a wise decision that placed The Vision of Sir Launfal, one of the most poetic of Lowell's poems, on the list of requirements in English literature for entrance to our colleges. It has been the endeavor in this edition to make the Notes and Questions of such a nature as will help the student, first, to get the truth which the poet would teach; and, second, to see the beauty of the poetic language, music, and figure, and their relation to the thought. The thanks of the editor are due to Prof. Katharine Lee Bates, of Wellesley College, who has kindly allowed her "Hints on the Handling of a Poem," which forms part of the Introduction to her edition of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, to be reprinted here. For the use of some of the facts in the Biographical Sketch, acknowledgment is here made to Mr. Francis H. Underwood's Biographical Sketch of James Russell Lowell. NEW HAVEN, CONN., MABEL CALDWELL WILLARD. |