Page 90 - Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor

verse, the Lord knows, Is some of it pr--No, 'tis not even prose.

Irving and Holmes are two more of his favorites. Of the first he says:

What! Irving? Thrice welcome, warm heart and fine brain, You bring back
the happiest spirit from Spain, And the gravest sweet humor, that ever were
there Since Cervantes met death in his gentle despair.

Holmes he happily hits off thus:

There's Holmes, who is matchless among you for wit; A Leyden jar always
full charged, from which flit The electrical tingles of hit after hit. His are

just the fine hands, too, to weave you a lyric Full of fancy, fun, feeling, or
spiced with satiric; In a measure so kindly, you doubt if the toes That are

trodden upon are your own or your foe's.

And he ends by saying:

Nature fits all her children with something to do; He who would write and

can't write, can surely review, Can set up a small booth as critic and sell us
his Petty conceit and his pettier jealousies.

Lowell was a good critic, and clearly saw the merit of the really great
writers of his time. We have quoted his characterizations of those he

admires. His keen thrusts at those who are not half as great as they would
have us believe are both amusing and true, and no doubt made their victims
smart sharply enough, for instance that--

One person whose portrait just gave the least hint Its original had a most

horrible squint.

CHAPTER X

THE TRUEST POETRY