The Original Signed Fair Copy of a Published Sonnet of James Russell Lowell

James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet,  as well as a critic, editor and even American diplomat, best known for his association with the “Fireside Poets.” These were a group of New England poets whose popularity made them the first American poets to rival the popularity of British poets of their day. The Fireside Poets are generally accepted to consist of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, James Russell Lowell, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. These poets earned their nickname through their strict adherence to poetic convention such as meter and rhyme scheme which made their works particularly easy to memorize and recite. This made them perfect for entertaining families around the fire. Lowell and Longfellow were actually lifelong friends.

Lowell went to Harvard College and also earned a degree from Harvard Law School. He returned to teach literature there in 1856, a position he held for 20 years. He also went on to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Spain and also to England and eventually died on the same estate where he was born. He believed that  the poet served  an important role in society – that of both critic and prophet. Lowell used his poetry for reform, most notably for the abolitionist movement, in which he and his first wife Maria White were avid believers. However, as he got older and after the death of Maria, his activity with the movement seemed to wane.

In February of 1877 Lowell traveled to Baltimore where he gave a series of 20 lectures on literature of the Romance languages at Johns Hopkins University. The University’s 10thanniversary was held during his stay there and he was the recipient of much hospitality, engratiating himself in the society and making himself a most welcome guest. Later in life Lowell referred to his time at Hopkins as one of the most pleasant months of his life. The Mr. Child he refers to in the letter was his companion and friend during his teaching days at Harvard, Professor Francis J. Child, who had been named Harvard’s first English Professor in 1876.

As an expression of his fondness for his time in Baltimore, Lowell penned  a sonnet to a young daughter of the first President of Johns Hopkins University, Daniel Coit Gilman, in response to flowers she had sent him. He enclosed it with this Autograph Letter Signed from his home in Elmwood, Cambridge, Mass., 7 April, 1877. This was just 4 months before he left for Spain as Ambassador. “Dear Miss Alice, I shall assume for my own convenience that there just fourteen roses in the lovely sheaf I found in my room when I came in for shelter from the ill humor of that February day, so unlike the temperature both outward and inward to which Baltimore had accustomed us. I repay them in fourteen verses and I wish it were as easy to match the sweetness of your sonnet as its numbers. However, I promised you that I would send it and I have not forgotten, but have had so many things to do that I had delayed paying my debt till you had half forgotten your debtor. The two quatrains with which my sonnet  gets well underway were written on the spot with your roses comforting two of my benumbed senses. Luckily I wrote them on the back of an invitation which certifies to the date – “Saturday, 24th feby”. The concluding triplets  I had partly written down when I was interrupted , and I finished them this morning. I wish it was better, but at least the gratitude will last if not the sonnet.  I suppose by this time you speak Latin as readily as Sir Hudibras  to whom it , “was no more difficult than to a blackbird tis to whistle,” and that you read your New Testament  in the original for ease in understanding. Pray give my kindest remembrances to your father and aunts, who may be sure of them so long as I last, and don’t leave out Lizzie.  If Mr. Child knew of my writing, he would send his love. Indeed he would have sent it himself for this but that he has so occupied . Hoping one of these days to welcome you here. I remain heartily yours, J.R. Lowell”

Autograph Sonnet Signed, an actual “Fair Copy” of this published work, attached to the letter previously mentioned.

“To Miss Alice Gilman
Who sent me roses, 24th February 1877
A handful of ripe rosebuds in my room / I found when all heaven’s  mercy seemed shut out / By clouds morose that dallied with a doubt / ‘tween rain and snow: meanwhile mine eyes with bloom / were comforted, and over summer’s tomb, / Out of your gift rose nightingales to flout / with easter prophecies  the chill without  / And sing the mind clear of the season’s gloom / So may your innocent  fancy be carest / Ever with impulses  to timely  deeds / Generous of sunshine, and your life be blest  / with flower and fruit immortal , sprung of seeds / Sown by those singing birds that make their rest  / In natures thoughtful of another’s needs! / J.R. Lowell”

A great rarity, a search of public records going back almost four decades failed to show any fair copy of a Lowell work.