James Russell Lowell
American Poet, critic, editor
1819-1891
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays.
The Vision of Sir Launfal.
James Russell Lowell was born in Boston in 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 Greenleaf Whittier, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. They were much more popular in their time than they have been recently, because their work was very "preachy". Nevertheless members of the group like Lowell and Whittier, both ardent abolitionists (people who worked to end slavery), may not have seemed so conservative in the nineteenth century.
Lowell's contribution to American Arthurian literature* is his poem "The Vision of Sir Launfal." which became very popular. It was often studied by School children; 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.
Lowell was also a newspaper editor and essayist, often writing about the need to end slavery.
* Arthurian stories are about King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table