Elinor Nauen

And what is so rare as a day in June? 

Then - if ever - come perfect days. 

 

I know, I know, I always center on this James Russell Lowell quote in June. So here's a timely bonus quote from this great 19th-century writer, abolitionist, critic, editor, diplomat, & poet;

 

Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide
In the strife of Truth and Falsehood
For the good or evil side.

 

from The Present Crisis (1844) (thank you, Markos, for this)

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
~ James Russell Lowell

 

I've told this story before, but I like it & here it is again. I went to Lowell Grade School, one of the very first schools in Sioux Falls, in fact. Our Lakeside Dairy milkman was Jim Lowell, and not only was he the only man you saw in the neighborhood during the day, which made him exotic, he actually let us kids ride in his milk truck. Standing up! Only for a few feet & creeping along more slowly than might seem possible but it made a huge impression on me. So I wasn't surprised at all that they named my school after him. 

And what is so rare as a day in June?

Then, if ever, come perfect days. 

 

Anyone from Sioux Falls who attended Lowell School knows these lines, I would wager, from James Russell Lowell's poem "The Vision of Sir Launfal." My hometown was founded in the Centennial year of 1876, so it's not surprising that many schools were named after notable 19th-century Americans: Longfellow, Hawthorne, Garfield, Eugene Field, Cleveland, Horace Mann, Whittier, Edison (my junior high). 

 

I've written about this before, but when I was little, I assumed that my school was named after our milkman, Jim Lowell, who would let us ride in his truck: Of course they should name a school after him. When I discovered who James Russell Lowell really was, I dug that just as much. 

Our milkman when I was very little was named Jim Lowell. He would give us rides in his truck, one of those old milk trucks with no doors and no front seats. He would creep along at 1 mph for about 10 feet. Nothing I relished more than standing up in a moving vehicle.

So it was not at all surprising to me that my elementary school, James Russell Lowell School, was named after a hero like him.

What was surprising was finding out that James Russell Lowell was someone else entirely. I don’t recall spending any time on the poet at Lowell School, except to memorize his most famous line: “And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days”—lines that I still repeat automatically on every lovely late spring day.  Read More