Throughout her brief life, Maria White Lowell was a steady partner to her husband, poet James Russell Lowell, and a dedicated advocate for abolition. But their happy marriage was shadowed by profound grief: of their four children, only one survived infancy. When Maria died of tuberculosis aged just thirty-two, her devastated husband privately published this collection of her poetry to preserve her memory.

Rooted in both her firm moral convictions and deep personal sorrows, the resulting volume captures a passionate, distinct voice. Faced with the loss of her infant daughter, Lowell pours her grief into “The Morning-Glory.” Drawing a delicate parallel between her child and the brief, bright bloom of the titular flower, she reflects on a life that withered almost before it had begun. Rather than retreating into abstract mourning, she grounds her poetry in the physical reality of her sorrow, capturing a mother’s heartbreak with unflinching clarity.