The editor naturally does not assume responsibility for the character of the examination questions given, at the end of this volume. They are questions that have been used in recent years in college entrance papers by two eminent examination boards. J.W.A. _October_ 1, 1908. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: Life of Lowell Critical Appreciations The Vision of Sir Launfal The Commemoration Ode Bibliography Poets' Tributes to Lowell POEMS: The Vision of Sir Launfal The Shepherd of King Admetus An Incident in a Railroad Car Hebe To the Dandelion My Love The Changeling An Indian-Summer Reverie The Oak Beaver Brook The Present Crisis The Courtin' The Commemoration Ode NOTES: The Vision of Sir Launfal The Shepherd of King Admetus Hebe To the Dandelion My Love The Changeling An Indian-Summer Reverie The Oak Beaver Brook The Present Crisis The Courtin' The Commemoration Ode EXAMINATION QUESTIONS INTRODUCTION LIFE OF LOWELL In Cambridge there are two literary shrines to which visitors are sure to find their way soon after passing the Harvard gates, "Craigie House," the home of Longfellow and "Elmwood," the home of Lowell. Though their hallowed retirement has been profaned by the encroachments of the growing city, yet in their simple dignity these fine old colonial mansions still bespeak the noble associations of the past, and stand as memorials of the finest products of American culture. Elmwood was built before the Revolution by Thomas Oliver, the Tory governor, who signed his abdication at the invitation of a committee of "about four thousand people" who surrounded his house at Cambridge. The property was confiscated by the Commonwealth and used by the American army during the war. In 1818 it was purchased by the Rev. Charles Lowell, pastor of the West Congregational Church in Boston, and after ninety years it is still the family home. Here was born, February 22, 1819, James Russell Lowell, with surroundings most propitious for the nurturing of a poet-soul. Within the stately home there was a refined family life; the father had profited by the unusual privilege of three years' study abroad, and his library of some four thousand volumes was not limited to theology; the mother, whose maiden name was Spence and who traced her Scotch ancestry back to the hero of the ballad of _Sir Patrick Spens_, taught her children the good old ballads and the romantic stories in the _Fairie Queen_, and it was one of the poet's earliest delights to recount the adventures of Spenser's heroes and heroines to his playmates.