Essay Database

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) is one of the group of authors sometimes called the Fireside Poets or the Schoolroom Poets, a group which also included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Green leaf Whittier, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Because of their conservative approach to verse and the often blatant morality in their poetry, the very qualities that made them popular in their day, they have been out of favor throughout much of the twentieth century. Nevertheless members …

…that his vision of the Grail as true charity is something that any person in any time can achieve. "The Vision of Sir Launfal" achieved tremendous popularity. It was often used as a school text; and there was a new edition or a reprint of an earlier edition virtually every year from its first publication in 1848 until after the turn of the century. It is one of the key texts in the American Arthurian tradition.