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A 1 y 7 t C 1 r r- r r r f x 2 l r I J i tjI- tjI yA 1 J 91 h v J Q I rr p 1 I Ily Y r I t s fr J 3 L T I It DIU t r r 4 a a rn rY i On the o of or this month a hundred hundred hun hun- dred dyed years ears will have ha passed since lI Henry nr Longfellow was born in the large lambi rambling nS' nS house Er J overlooking tho the sea at Portland Me Mc Tho The poets poet's fame Came has uner undergone one sharp shari vicissitudes during this century Ho lIe lose lote speedily to bo be the most popular and besl best beloved of or American poets r when hen he died In 1882 it was considered consid consid- ered cred an Irreparable national calam- calam t H Ity today literary moguls mogul exalt Whilman Whit Whit- Whitman man and Poe Poc an and sneer r that Longfellow Longfellow Long Long- fellow Is good enough for or children s But the enthusiasm with which prep prep- have been made to celebrate I. I the centenary not nol only In Portland I an and Cambridge but hul at man many other platen place seems to that the pendulum of opinion Is about to swing backward again and people will realIze realIze real- real Ize despite supercilious critics that what Is good enough for children is Is 1 none loo too good for Cor their theil elders ciders I r t t. t There Js one story about Longfellow Longfellow low told y William Dean Howells in Literary Friends antI and Acquaintance r which bodies forth better hetter than colI columns col- col I u of eulogy the charm chann am and lover love- love r linens of the man and his song It was at Longfellow's funeral Emerson Emer Emer- sun son un had come from Concord and amI stood beside the tho bier looking Ion long upon tho white while face of ot the white while poet as dead he lay among amont his his' books Emersons Emerson's memory was but a flickering flIcker flIcker- I ing In lamp at that time and as 5 he hei i ga gazed etI upon Longfellow's peaceful sleep he seemed to be bo pathetically ti to recall something A i 1 little BlUe later haler he ho The Tho gentleman we wo have o Just been burying was o a sweet and beautiful soul goul but I forget his name A All 11 of Longfellow's life lite and all his literary work wOlli are summed up in that thai simple tribute Ho lIe was a sweet and beautiful soul out Tae rude Norsemen after their theil conversion Ilon to Christianity u used to speak of the white Christ it and BJornson in a leU letter r to an American Amerl Ameri white Mr can friend wrote of the critics Longfellow Though literary may forget Corgel his name the great leal American people will always remember her ber him as a 3 sweet and n soul i l J Descended tended Trans From Pilgrim Father I. I freer from the No o life liCe was ever er taint of oC anything mean or 01 vile He Ho i disproved ell the notion that genius must be he unhealthy and erratic The loI sprees of or Bobble Burns BUIn the liaisons of ot Lord v ll Byron Ion had nothing to do tIo with th their lr genius these men might have been greater r poets ha had they Hv lived 1 decent I 1 and or orderly crl lives cs like Wordsworth r 4 lenn Tennyson son and our good New England r bards No wonder wondel that Longfellow a noblemen he be was wasI of or natures nature's 1 I- I descended from tho the stern old Pit Pit- grim stock on stock on his mothers mother's side from Crom t t i. i ur Mayflower families including that l''s ls of oC Jphn Alden and antI Priscilla i whom he has Immortalized in The rv i r Courtship of o Miles Standish Blandish His Jr grandfathers grandfather's grandfather Tan another coincidence between poetry an and gene genc- alo was a Village Blacksmith tI The name of Longfellow was L- L r written and the maternal maternal ma- ma surname of worth first ap- ap V. V ashot as M Wordsworth hot so that there ma may have ha been a 11 distant link of re relationship relationship re- re with the English poet Wordsworth who was also descended oa i from an ancient Yorkshire family Perhaps there is no bolter proof of or ort Longfellow's real real poetic power than t Ir tho the fact tact that he became a n. poet peet In 1 i i i- i r J. J i a I spite spile ot of his Ids rather ludicrous name 1 Names like Shakespeare and amI Spencer r havo a n fine One flourish an and dignity to tn them but hut people would bo be inclined to laugh laush if ff a n. poet by the name of put In a 0 hid bUl for rot fame Came There Is a great Sleat deal cal in a n namo name ns as Lowell I has said in his essay on Keats t hr adjective Kent sy implies something contemptuous But Longfellow has made his name namo the synonym f for r poetry no no one things any longer r ifa of if ofa I a Q ludicrous connotation Ills try por-try has made men forget his name nam Nor Nur Is IH the tho appreciation of Longfellow I low confined to the young youn as critical I snobbery assumes l In the balloting for Cor the Hall o of Fame Longfellow Longfellow's s 's name namo stood tenth among 3 39 Emerson's Emersons Emersons Emerson's Emersons Emerson's Emer Emer- sons son's was wa the only literary name name- above him while IrvIn Irving and Ua Hawthorne Hawthorne Haw Haw- w- w thorne were the tle only others chosen The nine men mon who ranked ahead of Longfellow were Washington Lincoln Webster Franklin FI Grant Marshall Mai Je Jefferson Emerson and Fulton The l Pools Poets o l Childhood Like LUte Goethe and many another 1 great poet Longfellow was first taught to appreciate tho the beauties of verse by hy his mother She read Cowper Hannan Han Hall I nan nah More and Ossian to the Ule children i She was a t sensible seii Ible woman besides not I afraid of or a thunderstorm but hut enjoying en en enjoying I the excitement of ot Its I dors don I Henrys Henry's first poem was published in the l Portland Gazette when ho w wan i little more than 18 It runs as follows follows fol ml- lows THE TIlE BATTLE nATTIE o OF LOV LOVELLS LOVELL'S LL'S POND Cold cold 18 is the tho north wind and rude rudo I is the blast chat sweeps like a hurricane no loudly and ana fast As it moans through the tall waving pines lone and drear dreal Sighs a 0 requiem sad sail oer o'er tho the warriors warrior's w l' l 8 bier Tho The whoop war-whoop in h. still and tl ito tJ o savages savage's yell yell- Has lIas sunk souk Into silence aloe if doll Tho ho din of or the tho battle the tho tumult is oer o'er And the tho war clarions voice 13 is tow now heard no more Tho The warriors that fought for their country and bled Have o sunk Bunk to their re rest t the tho damp earth is their bed No stone tono tells teUs the tile place where their ashes repose I Nor or points out the spot from 1 the graves of their foes They died dIed in their glory surrounded cd by tame fame am 0 And Victory's loud trump their death did proclaim The They are dead but ut they live in each patriots patriot's breast And their names are cn on honors honor's bright crest The young poets poet's am ambition lUon rc received 1 X t r v wr t r or lJ 1 ZD rOl Tom D 2 Y I 1 T 2 t. t f m r rt r rr w r 4 S fe i l f r 4 ft j y 9 T x u-i u i i s 's W L i M Y v E aG a a. cruel blow the tho evening of tho the very day when he first saw HaW himself in print lIe He accompanied his father toa to toa a 0 friends friend's house re the talk folic of the men turned upon poetry Did you see tree the piece in today's paper n asked lt d the host Very stiff he added added added add add- ed remarkably moreover moco It is 19 all ull borrowed borro every word of or it It T Tho o 13 old poet cried himself to sleep that night A year or so 80 later latOr in 1821 Longfellow Longfellow LonC Ilow I- I low went to Bowdoin college Thero Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of ur iris his classmates another was wa I Frank rank Pierce destined lc to become president of or the tho United States Stales Perhaps the most significant sig sig- episode of ot Longfellow's college life lIro was that one exhibition day lay in a debate h ha he assumed tho the character and d ho course courso of or the American Indian which may have been tho the Initial impulse to writing Hiawatha many years after Ills His E En Irly 11 Writings While hUo he was in college Longfellow Lon began sending sanding s contributions to the United States Slates Literary Gazette In whose where columns Bryant also figured quite frequently Along Alon with much Immature verse there thero appeared hero here tho the fine line Hymn of ot the Moravian duns V. V which h still stirs our pulses r r I 0 although we know Pulaski's banner was only 20 inches square an and would woul not have made a very ery good martial cloak and shroud The Tho Letters of ot Sir William Jones who who knew 28 languages but ut is re remembered remembered re- re l chiefly by that classic of the Third nead Reader r What Constitutes a State f l impelled Longfellow to the I study of ot foreign tongues after h he was wal graduated from Bowdoin fourth in his class l Few ew people are now aware that Longfellow's Mist printed hook book was wasa a French grammar translated from LHomond L'Homond and his first original work to bo be 0 printed was written in French and was a Syllabus of or Italian Gram Gram- mar And even his first volume of or verse was made up of or translations from the Spanish coplas of or Manrique Among his collected poems we wo have havo translations from German man Swedish Danish Portuguese Saxon Anglo and Latin besides the languages already mentioned Outre l Mer e-Mer-a a Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea Sen was published in 1835 and strove to do o for the continent what Irvings Irving's Sketch Book had done dODO for England Hyperion a romance appeared appealed In 1839 and an was Longfellow's Longfellow's Long Long- fellows fellow's last prose book hook except Kavanagh Iva Ka 10 years later The same year eal Hyperion was published also I ft saw Voices of tho the Night which contained contained contained con con- some Borne of tho the poems that than have made his fame worldwide A Psalm of Life LICo an anti Midnight Mass for tho the tying Dying Year Another of or thesa poems The Tho Beleaguered City provoked from Poe Pee an natured ill hargo of oC plagiarism which has been viewed as lightly as Margaret Fullers Fuller's savage criticism of the poetry as a whole Ills Travels TIU in Europe To prepare himself t for r his poetic vocation Longfellow went abroad for fora a n. year after aHer leaving lea Bowdoin An episode pis ode of his first European pilgrimage pilgrim pilgrim- age shows how narrow and uncertain the border bonIer line between poetic fancy and the prosaic facts of or life lire how how easily the wanderer may mu bo pushed over o the frontier into the tho rival rl realm Among Among- the tho vineyards ls of oC Franco France he hemet hemel hemet met mel a n. group of or village girls As they approached th the rhe cottages gos thought he-thought he thought of or Goldsmith an and told ono one of or the girls ho he ha had a flute In his knapsack h would she 15 e like to dance danco The rustic damsel replied that she should like to dance well enough but had no idea iden what a flute was After that wrote Longfellow I thought nothing nothing noth noth- ing but bUl starvation would drive o mo tHO to strike up at tho the entrance of or a n village e as Goldsmith did Nevertheless UK the I j American minister T to Spain saw hll him dance In the streets on holidays i j so his romantic buoyancy was not a alto al- al together to ethor crushed although he be wro home that M My My poetic career c. Is IB ni lb fin fin- shed Q t youth youthful lc mis ii It it J alli it 3 et tI t r gurt At 22 2 ho and became pr Iro H lal or of modern n n languages at nt Ilot doln Ills lala alma mater r. J Tho rom romance J ho o had hail so flO often oon ml mit ml- ml od 0 1 In hla his foreign pilgrimage ho lie stun tum- tum bl hJ jd d upon shortly after his hiM return home One Ono Js is reminded of or Dante Danto first lt of Beatrice Jh Ih his hl Jove o lore b h aud ard how ho he never told the tradition that Ion Longfellow saMary saw sat Mary Iary Storer I Potter at church h and ana followed followed fol fol- lowed her hl home hOIl without daring t ti to peak although she was all air old school school- elate The 11 mOll st st young pro pool fe fessor ol got his sister to Introduce hIm bin bini hImI i I gulp ahi to tho the fair fair- on one and a n. year ar 01 of so 0 J later the wt wedding bells rang Severed Sc h by Tragedy All AU went well with the tho The marriage was crowned with Ideal idea No an storms no nt escapades csc marred its cats caIn and joy Prosperity at a yest yeat salary alary and fame in tho the form of ot an appointment at Harvard to succeed the learned rick Ticknor nor rounded tho the circle circle cir ell cle ell of domestic felicity The appointment app appoint ment meat at nt Harvard carried with it permission permission permission per per- mission of or a years year's residence abroad before entering upon his now duties and rind Longfellow availed himself of this Hus permission taking his young wife with wilh him film After they ha had journeyed hither and thither for Cor six months mooting meeting the an and other celebrities celebrities celeb celeb- Mrs Longfellow died at dam dain am Longfellow Lon felt Celt his grief deeply but bul bore hore it bravely Going to Heidelberg he ho plunged Into the study of German literature And so ho came to bo be theone the theono theone one ono who opened for tor Americans the rich treasure house of or German song Ol and thought When ho returned to lo take up his hib hl work at Harvard he found residence in tho Iho House at Cambridge which has ever since boon hoen ono one o of Americas America's literary shrines Tho Thu mansion manIon man man- Ion sion had been Washington's I tons ton's headquarters headquarters head head- quarters during tho tiro siege of or Boston the room that became Longfellow's study tu y used to be bo Washington's ce and Washington's bedroom was the tho apartment first occupied by tho the poet George Geurge William Curtis has told tol most amusingly how Mrs 1 Craigie con uc- uc r-d r tho young professor through theold the tho old mansion showing him room after room a with Ith tho the words Vors You cant can't have that until at last she I came am to the Washington room room room- overlooking overlooking over over- looking the river when n sho omitted 1 the thc negative and mado mallo the home- home homei i seeker happy I A Xe England EIl Weimar This house was the tho poets poet's home all aU aUthe the rest of at his life liCe and became tho the center of Cambridge's literary society Cambridge was then the literary capital capi tal of ot America probably America probably no city ever eyer harbored so 80 many illustrious literary men at one time Urne As Bret Brol Harte said to Howells who moved there thero in 1866 Why Vh you couldn't lire fire a revolver rc from flom rom your youl front door om porch without bringing winging down own a n. two Amon mong those who lived in Cambridge were Lowell Agassiz Child Dana Norton the Jameses father andion and andson son ion along alon with many man others not for for- gollen Holmes often otten ran over from Boston Emerson sometimes came from rum Concord and Whittier hillier from Amesbury In Washington's old council room met net the Iho Dante Danle clU club under whose In Inspiration Inspiration In- In and with wilh whose aid Longfellow Long Lon ellow fellow produced his version of Di rine Ino Comedy Comey n n. version not nol HO so highly high high- I I ly 3 acclaimed b by critics but rising InI in |