187. He knew to bide his time: He knew how to bide his time, as in
Milton's _Lycidas_, "He knew himself to sing." Recall illustrations of
Lincoln's wonderful patience and faith.
198. The first American: In a prose article, Lowell calls him "The
American of Americans." Compare Tennyson's "The last great
Englishman," in the _Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington_.
Stanza IV of Tennyson's ode should be compared with this Lincoln
stanza.
202. Along whose course, etc.: Along the course leading to the
"inspiring goal." The conjunction of the words "pole" and "axles"
easily leads to a confusion of metaphor in the passage. The imagery is
from the ancient chariot races.
232. Paean: A paean, originally a hymn to Apollo, usually of
thanksgiving, is a song of triumph, any loud and joyous song.
236. Dear ones: Underwood says in his biography of Lowell: "In the
privately printed edition of the poem the names of eight of the poet's
kindred are given. The nearest in blood are the nephews, General
Charles Russell Lowell, killed at Winchester, Lieutenant James Jackson
Lowell, at Seven Pines, and Captain William Lowell Putnam, at Ball's
Bluff. Another relative was the heroic Colonel Robert G. Shaw, who
fell in the assault on Fort Wagner."
As a special memorial of Colonel Shaw, Lowell wrote the poem,
_Memoriae Positum._ With deep tenderness he refers to his nephews in
_"Mr. Hosea Biglow to the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly":_
"Why, hain't I held 'em on my knee?
Didn't I love to see 'em growin',
Three likely lads ez wal could be,
Hahnsome an' brave an' not tu knowin'?
I set an' look into the blaze
Whose natur', jes' like theirn, keeps climbin',
Ez long 'z it lives, in shinin' ways,
An' half despise myself for rhymin'.
"Wut's words to them whose faith an' truth
On War's red techstone rang true metal,
Who ventered life an' love an' youth
For the gret prize o' death in battle?
To him who, deadly hurt, agen
Flashed on afore the charge's thunder,
Tippin' with fire the bolt of men
Thet rived the Rebel line asunder?"
243. When Moses sent men to "spy out" the Promised Land, they reported
a land that "floweth with milk and honey," and they "came unto the
brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster
of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought
of the pomegranates and of the figs" (Numbers xiii.)