sonorous charms; but, like all the later poems of the author, it is
full of condensed thought and requires study. The reader to-day finds
many passages whose force and beauty escaped him during the recital,
but the effect of the poem at the time was overpowering. The face of
the poet, always singularly expressive, was on this occasion almost
transfigured--glowing, as if with an inward light. It was impossible
to look away from it. Our age has furnished many great historic
scenes, but this Commemoration combined the elements of grandeur and
pathos, and produced an impression as lasting as life."

Of the delivery and immediate effect of the poem Mr. Greenslet says:
"Some in the audience were thrilled and shaken by it, as Lowell
himself was shaken in its delivery, yet he seems to have felt with
some reason that it was not a complete and immediate success. Nor is
this cause for wonder. The passion of the poem was too ideal, its
woven harmonies too subtle to be readily communicated to so large an
audience, mastered and mellowed though it was by a single deep mood.
Nor was Lowell's elocution quite that of the deep-mouthed odist
capable of interpreting such organ tones of verse. But no sooner was
the poem published, with the matchless Lincoln strophe inserted, than
its greatness and nobility were manifest."

The circumstances connected with the writing of the ode have been
described by Lowell in his private letters. It appears that he was
reluctant to undertake the task, and for several weeks his mind
utterly refused to respond to the high duty put upon it. At last the
sublime thought came to him upon the swift wings of inspiration. "The
ode itself," he says, "was an improvisation. Two days before the
commemoration I had told my friend Child that it was impossible--that
I was dull as a door-mat. But the next day something gave me a jog,