A POEM IN WHICH A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN POET AND DIPLOMAT EXPRESSED HIS
FEAR OF OLD WORLD INFLUENCES.
With the single exception of John Hay, no English-speaking poet has
been so distinguished as a student of the social and political phases
of national life as was James Russell Lowell (1819–1891). It is
doubtful whether the United States ever produced a poet who was more
truly national. His earlier verses were characterized by quaint Yankee
humor, and many were virile pictures of New England life. In his later
years, as a writer, editor, and lecturer, Lowell labored zealously to
bring the literature and culture of the New World to a plane as high
as that of the Old World. As a diplomat, he did more to cement the
friendship of Great Britain and the United States than any man had
done before. His official title, while in England, was that of United
States Minister to Great Britain, but a London newspaper bestowed upon
him another—“His Excellency the Ambassador of American Literature to
the Court of Shakespeare.”
But though Lowell was cosmopolitan in many of his tastes, he was
essentially a patriotic American. The great influx of foreigners and
foreign ideals into the United States oftentimes excited his
apprehension, and it was while under the influence of these fears that
he wrote “The Sower,” which is printed herewith.