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Show Encouraged by the hearty welcome given to those two American poems, Longfellow, in 1858, published a third, "The Courtship of Miles Standish." In this he told no pathetio tale of parted part-ed lovers, nor did he draw on the quaint lore of the red men. He took his story from the annals of his own anoestors, the sturdy founders of New England. As it happened, he himself (like his fellow fel-low poet, Dry Ant) was a direct descendant descend-ant of John Alden and Priscilla, the Puritan maiden, whose wooing he narrated. nar-rated. "The Courtship of Miles Stan-dish" Stan-dish" is only less popular than its predecessors, pred-ecessors, "Evangeline" and "Hiawa- tha." All three have been taken to heart by the American people, all were composed during the brightest years of the poet's life, when his family were growing up about him, when he was in the full possession of his powers and had already achieved fame. Professot Erander Matthews in St- Nicholas. |