"The paths of glory lead but to the grave."
and Tennyson's line, in the _Ode to the Duke of Wellington_:
"The path of duty was the way of glory."
In a letter to T.W. Higginson, who was editing the _Harvard Memorial
Biographies_, in which he was to print the ode, Lowell asked to have
the following passage inserted at this point:
"Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave,
But through those constellations go
That shed celestial influence on the brave.
If life were but to draw this dusty breath
That doth our wits enslave,
And with the crowd to hurry to and fro,
Seeking we know not what, and finding death,
These did unwisely; but if living be,
As some are born to know,
The power to ennoble, and inspire
In other souls our brave desire
For fruit, not leaves, of Time's immortal tree,
These truly live, our thought's essential fire,
And to the saner," etc.
Lowell's remark in _The Cathedral_, that "second thoughts are prose,"
might be fairly applied to this emendation. Fortunately, the passage
was never inserted in the ode.
255. Orient: The east, morning; hence youth, aspiration, hope. The
figure is continued in l. 271.
262. Who now shall sneer? In a letter to Mr. J.B. Thayer, who had
criticized this strophe, Lowell admits "that there is a certain
narrowness in it as an expression of the popular feeling as well as
my own. I confess I have never got over the feeling of wrath with
which (just after the death of my nephew Willie) I read in an English
paper that nothing was to be hoped of an army officered by tailors'
apprentices and butcher boys." But Lowell asks his critic to observe
that this strophe "leads naturally" to the next, and "that I there
justify" the sentiment.
265. Roundhead and Cavalier: In a general way, it is said that New
England was settled by the Roundheads, or Puritans, of England, and
the South by the Cavaliers or Royalists.
272-273. Plantagenets: A line of English kings, founded by Henry II,
called also the House of Anjou, from their French origin. The _House
of Hapsburg_ is the Imperial family of Austria. The _Guelfs_ were one
of the great political parties in Italy in the Middle Ages, at long
and bitter enmity with the _Ghibelines_.
323. With this passage read the last two stanzas of _Mr. Hosea Biglow
to the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly_, beginning:
"Come, Peace! not like a mourner bowed
For honor lost and dear ones wasted,
But proud, to meet a people proud,
With eyes that tell of triumphs tasted!"
328. Helm: The helmet, the part of ancient armor for protecting the
head, used here as the symbol of war.
343. Upon receiving the news that the war was ended, Lowell wrote to
his friend, Charles Eliot Norton: "The news, my dear Charles, is from
Heaven. I felt a strange and tender exaltation. I wanted to laugh and
I wanted to cry, and ended by holding my peace and feeling devoutly
thankful. There is something magnificent in having a country to love."