HARVARD UNIVERSITY. VALEDICTORY EXERCISES OF THE SENIOR CLASS OF 1838

[LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL] Harvard University. HARVARD UNIVERSITY. VALEDICTORY EXERCISES OF THE SENIOR CLASS OF 1838. [Cambridge: Metcalf, 1838] Broadside. First edition. A few small creases and nicks along the top edge, but a fine copy. This is the commencement program for Lowell's graduating class, listing his poem as fourth of the five items on the program, but with an interesting footnote printed at the foot of the program: "On account of the absence of the Poet the Poem will be omitted." Lowell had broken some rule in chapel (not wearing a necktie was a serious infraction, for example, although Lowell's transgression is unknown) and had been punished by being "rusticated" to Concord under the not too watchful eye of the Rev. Barzillai Frost (a friend of Henry David Thoreau). On commencement day he sneaked into Cambridge and watched the ceremonies through the sheet of a covered wagon. His "class poem" was published six weeks after the ceremony, his first separate publication, but this commencement program is much rarer. Not in BAL.