_THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL_
1. The Musing organist: There is a peculiar felicity in this musical
introduction. The poem is like an improvisation, and was indeed
composed much as a musician improvises, with swift grasp of the subtle
suggestions of musical tones. It is a dream, an elaborate and somewhat
tangled metaphor, full of hidden meaning for the accordant mind, and
the poet appropriately gives it a setting of music, the most symbolic
of all the arts. It is an allegory, like any one of the adventures in
the _Fairie Queen_, and from the very beginning the reader must be
alive to the symbolic meaning, upon which Lowell, unlike Spenser,
places chief emphasis, rather than upon the narrative. Compare the
similar musical device in Browning's _Abt Vogler_ and Adelaide
Proctor's _Lost Chord_.
6. Theme: The theme, subject, or underlying thought of the poem is
expressed in line 12 below:
"We Sinais climb and know it not;"
or more comprehensively in the group of four lines of which this is
the conclusion. The organist's fingers wander listlessly over the keys
at first; then come forms and figures from out of dreamland over the
bridge of his careless melody, and gradually the vision takes
consistent and expressive shape. So the poet comes upon his central
subject, or theme, shaped from his wandering thought and imagination.
7. Auroral flushes: Like the first faint glimmerings of light in the
East that point out the pathway of the rising sun, the uncertain,
wavering outlines of the poet's vision precede the perfected theme
that is drawing near.
9. Not only around our infancy, etc.: The allusion is to
Wordsworth's _Ode on the Intimations of Immortality_, especially these
lines:
"Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature's Priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day."
As Lowell's central theme is so intimately associated with that of
Wordsworth's poem, if not directly suggested by it, the two poems
should be read together and compared. Lowell maintains that "heaven
lies about us" not only in our infancy, but at all times, if only we
have the soul to comprehend it.
12. We Sinais climb, etc.: Mount Sinai was the mountain in Arabia on
which Moses talked with God (_Exodus_ xix, xx). God's miracles are
taking place about us all the time, if only we can emancipate our
souls sufficiently to see them. From out of our materialized daily
lives we may rise at any moment, if we will, to ideal and spiritual
things. In a letter to his nephew Lowell says: "This same name of God
is written all over the world in little phenomena that occur under our
eyes every moment, and I confess that I feel very much inclined to
hang my head with Pizarro when I cannot translate those hieroglyphics
into my own vernacular." (_Letters_, I, 164).
Compare the following passage in the poem _Bibliolatres_:
"If thou hast wanderings in the wilderness
And find'st not Sinai, 't is thy soul is poor;
There towers the Mountain of the Voice no less,
Which whoso seeks shall find, but he who bends,
Intent on manna still and mortal ends,
Sees it not, neither hears its thundered lore."
15. Prophecies: Prophecy is not only prediction, but also any
inspired discourse or teaching. Compare the following lines from the
poem _Freedom_, written the same year:
"Are we, then, wholly fallen? Can it be
That thou, North wind, that from thy mountains bringest
Their spirit to our plains, and thou, blue sea,
Who on our rocks thy wreaths of freedom flingest,
As on an altar,--can it be that ye
Have wasted inspiration on dead ears,
Dulled with the too familiar clank of chains?"
At the end of this poem Lowell gives his view of "fallen and traitor
lives." He speaks of the "boundless future" of our country--
"Ours if we be strong;
Or if we shrink, better remount our ships
And, fleeing God's express design, trace back
The hero-freighted Mayflower's prophet-track
To Europe entering her blood-red eclipse."
While reading _Sir Launfal_ the fact must be kept in mind that Lowell
was at the time of writing the poem filled with the spirit of freedom
and reform, and was writing fiery articles in prose for the
_Anti-Slavery Standard_, expressing his bitter indignation at the
indifference and lukewarmness of the Northern people on the subject of
slavery.
17. Druid wood: The Druids were the aged priests of the Celts, who
performed their religious ceremonies in the forests, especially among
oaks, which were peculiarly sacred to them. Hence the venerable woods,
like the aged priests, offer their benediction. Every power of nature,
the winds, the mountain, the wood, the sea, has a symbolic meaning
which we should be able to interpret for our inspiration and
uplifting. Read Bryant's _A Forest Hymn_.
18. Benedicite: An invocation of blessing. Imperative form of the
Latin _benedicere_, to bless. Longfellow speaks of the power of songs
that--
"Come like the benediction
That follows after prayer."
19-20. Compare these lines with the ninth strophe of Wordsworth's
_Ode_. The "inspiring sea" is Wordsworth's "immortal sea." Both poets
rejoice that some of the impulses and ideals of youth are kept alive
in old age.
21. Earth gets its price, etc.: Notice the special meaning given to
_Earth_ here, in contrast with _heaven_ in line 29. Here again the
thought is suggested by Wordsworth's _Ode_, sixth strophe:
"Earth fills our lap with pleasures of her own."
23. Shrives: The priest shrives one when he hears confession and
grants absolution.
25. Devil's booth: Expand this metaphor and unfold its application
to every-day life.
27. Cap and bells: The conventional dress of the court fool, or
jester, of the Middle Ages, and, after him, of the stage clown,
consisted of the "fool's cap" and suit of motley, ornamented with
little tinkling bells.
28. Bubbles we buy, etc.: This line, as first published, had "earn"
for "buy."
31. This line read originally: "There is no price set," etc. The next
line began with "And."
32-95. This rapturous passage descriptive of June is unquestionably
the most familiar and most celebrated piece of nature poetry in our
literature. It is not only beautiful and inspiring in its felicitous
phrasings of external nature, but it is especially significant as a
true expression of the heart and soul of the poet himself. It was
always "the high-tide of the year" with Lowell in June, when his
spirits were in fine accord with the universal joy of nature. Wherever
in his poetry he refers to spring and its associations, he always
expresses the same ecstasy of delight. The passage must be compared
with the opening lines of _Under the Willows_ (which he at first named
_A June Idyll_):
"June is the pearl of our New England year.
Still a surprisal, though expected long,
Her coming startles. Long she lies in wait,
Makes many a feint, peeps forth, draws coyly back,
Then, from some southern ambush in the sky,
With one great gush of blossom storms the world," etc.
And in _Sunthin' in the Pastoral Line_ the coming of spring is
delightfully pictured:
"Our Spring gets everything in tune
An' gives one leap from April into June," etc.
In a letter written in June, 1867, Lowell says: "There never _is_ such
a season, and that shows what a poet God is. He says the same thing
over to us so often and always new. Here I've been reading the same
poem for near half a century, and never had a notion what the
buttercup in the third stanza meant before."
It is worth noting that Lowell's happy June corresponds to May in the
English poets, as in Wordsworth's _Ode_:
"With the heart of May
Doth every beast keep holiday."