11. Give the elements of strength in his style. "MAUD MULLER" 1. What is meant by the "mock-bird" in the third couplet? Are these mocking birds in New England? 2. Of what class is Maud with her "vague unrest" a type? 3. Is city life still as attractive to country girls and boys? 4. Is the Judge's aimless talk well worked out by the poet? 5. Had Maud and the Judge married, would they have been happier in the end? 6. Have lawyers changed with the flight of years? 7. Is it true that "humming" is a telltale habit? 8. What do you understand by "spinnet," "astral," and "chimney lug"? 9. Point out a couplet which has passed into a proverb. 10. What "sweet hope" is intended in the next to the last stanza? FOR REFERENCE "Life of John Greenleaf Whittier" ("Great Writers Series").--LINTON. "John Greenleaf Whittier" ("American Men of letters").--CARPENTER. "Whittier-Land."--PICKARD. "Reminiscences of Whittier's life at Oak Knoll."--WOODMAN. "Biographic Clinics."--GOULD. "Authors and Friends."--FIELDS. "John Greenleaf Whittier" ("English Men of Letters").--HIGGINSON. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891) JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, the son of a Unitarian minister, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the home of so many of our eminent authors. Educated at Harvard University, where he also prepared for the practice of law, he entered that profession, but finding it little to his taste quickly abandoned it for literature. In 1855 he succeeded Longfellow in the chair of modern languages at Harvard, a position which he held for the following twenty-two years. During this period he was for a time editor of the _Atlantic Monthly_, and the _North American Review_. In 1877 he was appointed minister to Spain, and in 1880 was transferred to the Court of St. James, where he remained five years. He died in 1891 at the age of seventy-two years. Lowell was a many-sided character, eminent as a poet, an essayist, a critic, and a public speaker. His friends included all the New England writers of his day and many English authors, who for the first time appreciated America's intellectual standing. His poetry is very uneven; this is due largely to the fact that he wrote principally for immediate effect, and, while his poems sparkle with wit and humor, they very commonly lack polish and form. This criticism would hardly apply to "The Vision of Sir Launfal," his best poem, or to the "Commemoration Ode." Lowell is probably better known as an essayist and critic, his best works in this line being "Fireside Travels," "My Study Windows," and "Among my Books." He was the leading American critic of his time.