A Fable for Critics

A Fable for Critics, satire in verse by James Russell Lowell, published anonymously in 1848. In the poem, Apollo, the god of poetry, asks a critic about the leading American writers. The critic replies with summary reviews of William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Greenleaf Whittier, and others, including Lowell himself. Though the tone of the poem is amiable, Lowell’s perceptive criticisms punctured some reputations.