A Fable for Critics is a book-length poem by American writer James Russell Lowell, first published anonymously in 1848. The poem made fun of well-known poets and critics of the time and brought notoriety to its author.

Overview

A Fable for Critics satirized many of the most important figures in American literature at the time, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and James Fenimore Cooper.^[1] Many of his harshest judgments were aimed at names that have not survived in posterity, including Nathaniel Parker Willis, Cornelius Mathews, and Fitz-Greene Halleck.^[2] He gave ample praise to Charles Frederick Briggs and Lydia Maria Child, though he was friends with both and likely allowed his friendship to inflate their talent.^[3] Of Edgar Allan Poe, he said he was "three-fifths genius... and two-fifths sheer fudge".^[1] Lowell included himself as well, referring to himself as having difficulty determining the difference "'twixt singing and preaching".^[4] Many of the poetic portraits were balanced with praise, as in Halleck's:

Lowell's most vicious treatment was aimed at Margaret Fuller, whom he referred to as Miranda.^[5] At first, he intended to exclude her entirely but thought it more insulting not to include her^[6] and was convinced to write "a line or two" by his wife Maria White Lowell.^[7] Ultimately, his characterization was the only which was wholly negative and not balanced with praise.^[7] He suggested that she stole old ideas and presented them as her own and that she was only genuine in her spite.^[8]

Publication history

James Russell Lowell, three years before the publication of A Fable for Critics

Critical response

John Ruskin labeled the poem "in animal spirit and power... almost beyond anything I know".^[5] Oliver Wendell Holmes found it "capital?crammed full and rammed down hard?with powder (lots of it)?shot?slugs?very little wadding... all crowded into a rusty-looking sort of blunderbuss barrel, as it were?capped with a percussion preface?and cocked with a title page as apropos as a wink to a joke".^[5] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow compared it to Lord Byron's "English Bards" as being "full of wild wit and deviltry, and amazingly clever".^[9]

Lowell's friend William Wetmore Story objected to the intense criticism of Fuller,^[5] as did his friend Thomas Wentworth Higginson.^[8] Edgar Allan Poe reviewed the work in the Southern Literary Messenger and called it "'loose'?ill-conceived and feebly executed, as well in detail as in general... we confess some surprise at his putting forth so unpolished a performance".^[10] His final judgment was that the work was not successful: "no failure was ever more complete or more pitiable".^[11] Ultimately, A Fable for Critics earned Lowell notoriety as a poet, once his name was revealed,^[1] though he did not significantly profit from its publication.^[9]

Notes

References

• Duberman, Martin. James Russell Lowell. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966.
• Heymann, C. David. American Aristocracy: The Lives and Times of James Russell, Amy, and Robert Lowell. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1980. ISBN 0396076084
• Sullivan, Wilson. New England Men of Letters. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972. ISBN 0027886808

External links

• ''A Fable for Critics'' ? 1856 edition from Google Book Search
• Review of ''A Fable for Critics'' by Edgar Allan Poe at the Edgar Allan Poe Society