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The writings of James Russell Lowell

in ten volumes
Lowell, James Russell (1819-1891)

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POEMS I.
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EARLIER POEMS
  
THRENODIA
  
THE SIRENS
  
IRENÉ
  
SERENADE
  
WITH A PRESSED FLOWER
  
THE BEGGAR
  
MY LOVE
  
SUMMER STORM
  
LOVE
  
TO PERDITA, SINGING
  
THE MOON
  
REMEMBERED MUSIC
  
SONG
  
ALLEGRA
  
THE FOUNTAIN
  
ODE
  
THE FATHERLAND
  
THE FORLORN
  
MIDNIGHT
  
A PRAYER
  
THE HERITAGE
  
THE ROSE: A BALLAD
  
SONG
  
ROSALINE
  
A REQUIEM
  
A PARABLE
  
SONG
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SONNETS
 1. 
I. TO A. C. L.
 2. 
[II. What were I, Love, if I were stripped of thee]
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[III. I would not have this perfect love of ours]
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[IV. “For this true nobleness I seek in vain]
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V. TO THE SPIRIT OF KEATS.
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[VI. Great Truths are portions of the soul of man]
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[VII. I ask not for those thoughts, that sudden leap]
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VIII. TO M. W., ON HER BIRTHDAY.
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[IX. My Love, I have no fear that thou shouldst die]
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[X. I cannot think that thou shouldst pass away]
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[XI. There never yet was flower fair in vain]
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XII. SUB PONDERE CRESCIT.
 13. 
[XIII. Beloved, in the noisy city here]
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XIV. ON READING WORDSWORTH'S SONNETS IN DEFENCE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
 15. 
XV. THE SAME CONTINUED.
 16. 
XVI. THE SAME CONTINUED.
 17. 
XVII. THE SAME CONTINUED.
 18. 
XVIII. THE SAME CONTINUED.
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XIX. THE SAME CONCLUDED.
 20. 
XX. TO M. O. S.
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[XXI. Our love is not a fading, earthly flower]
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XXII. IN ABSENCE.
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XXIII. WENDELL PHILLIPS.
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XXIV. THE STREET.
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[XXV. I grieve not that ripe Knowledge takes away]
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XXVI. TO J. R. GIDDINGS.
 27. 
[XXVII. I thought our love at full, but I did err]
  
L'ENVOI
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MISCELLANEOUS POEMS
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MEMORIAL VERSES
  
THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL
  
LETTER FROM BOSTON
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POEMS II.
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POEMS III.
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POEMS IV.

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[If I let fall a word of bitter mirth]

If I let fall a word of bitter mirth
When public shames more shameful pardon won,
Some have misjudged me, and my service done,
If small, yet faithful, deemed of little worth:
Through veins that drew their life from Western earth
Two hundred years and more my blood hath run
In no polluted course from sire to son;
And thus was I predestined ere my birth
To love the soil wherewith my fibres own
Instinctive sympathies; yet love it so
As honor would, nor lightly to dethrone
Judgment, the stamp of manhood, nor forego
The son's right to a mother dearer grown
With growing knowledge and more chaste than snow.
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