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THE

POETICAL WORKS

OF

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA

ILLUSTRATED BY F. GILBERT.

F. Kluge stud. phil.

LONDON:

JOHN DICKS, 313, STRAND; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.

1874.

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Kluge Lib'r, 1928

SKETCH

OF THE

LIFE OF LONGFELLOW.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW was born on the 27th of February, 1807, at the city of PortHund, in Maine, and entered, when fourteen years of age, at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, where, at the end of four years, he took his degree, with high honours. While yet an undergraduate, he had written many tasteful and carefully finished poems for the United States Literary Gazette:" yet, notwithstanding his evident predilection for an author's career, Longfellow was destined to the legal profession. For some months during the year 1825, he was occupied as a student of law in his father's office. The embryo poet, however, appears to have found the study of law uncongenial to his taste and aspirations; and having been offered the Professorship of Modern Languages at Bowdoin College, he prepared for the discharge of his new duties by a long visit to Europe.

Before returning to America, Longfellow visited France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, and England, studying with the utmost zeal the language and literature of each country. After an absence of nearly four years, he wended his way back to Bowdoin College, and took possession of his professorship. This was in the year 1829, being then but a young man of twenty-two.

While occupying his position of Professor at the college, he continued to follow his literary career with indefatigable vigilance. Besides contributing some valuable criticisms for the

North American Review," he published, in 1833. his translation from the Spinish of the celebrated poem of Don Jorg Murique on the Death of his Father." together with an introductory essay on Spanish Poetry" and, in 135, his Outre Mer; or, Sketches from Beyond "Sa,"-a scries of prose descriptions and reflections, somewhat in the style of Washington Irving.

In the same year of his publishing the latter work, having already, at the age of twentyeight, been recognised as a man of nark, he was appointed to the Professorship of modern languages and belles-lettres in Harvard College, Cambridge. Mr. Longfellow again left his native land, and sailed for Northern Europe, in order to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the languages and literature of Denmark and Sweden. He also visited Germany and Turkey, and was absent from America upwards of twelve months.

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some passages in his own life; and this work, which found high favour with refined and intelligent readers, was followed by Voices of the Night," the earliest collection of his poems. In 1841, appeared "Ballads and other Poems;" in 1842, Poems on Slavery;" in 1843, the play entitled, The Spanish Student;" and in 1845, The Poets and Poetry of Europe," and the Belfry of Bruges. Prior to this, in 1842, he had again visited Europe.

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Having for years cultivated his natural poetic power, and made himself one of the most skilful vesifiers of the time, Mr. Longfellow, in 1847, published his Evangeline,"-a melancholy story written in hexametiers-an experiment which, though it was, in the opinion of critics, somewhat hazardous for a poet of reputation to venture upon, he tried with no slight success. In 1818. appeared "Kavanagh, a Tale;" in 1849,

The Seaside," and "The Fireside:" followed, in 1851, by The Golden Legend,"-a work whose exquisite passages fully maintain its author's reputation for genius, and elicited no small measure of praise.

Although continuing to send forth small poems, and other literary works, it was not until 1855 that his "Song of Hiawatha" was published-a poem worthy of his fine taste and talent, in which is displayed the delicacy of sentiment, the literary art, the elegance of style, and the exquisite simplicity of expression which had characterised his other works, and which made his name widely known as one of the great poets of the age. Of this poem, the Spectator observed, that for playful and tender interpretations of the way in which child-like tribes, living in the midst of Nature's mightiest life and marvels, allegorize the transformations they see, and measure themselves against the powers and the creatures by whom they are surrounded---there is not, nor, as far as we know, has there ever been--anything like it in any lanuage

Another collection of poems, called "Birds of Passage,' appeared in 1855; followed by **Miles Standish," in 1859. In 1861, a heavy bercavement fell on Longfellow. In that year, his wife was unfortunately burnt to death. "Tales of a Wayside Inn" appeared in 1863; and, in 1867, The Translation of Dante."

On the 27th of May, 1868, Mr. Longfellow tock his departure from America, on another visit to England and the South of England. Prior to Paving, a farewell diner was given to him at New York, on which occasion, a poetic tribute by Dr. Oliver Wendell, was read. On his arrival

dowed at as early a period as the year 1636, and which, in the course of time, has grown into college, known on the other side of the Atlantis as the Harvard University. Hard by this seat of learning appears an antique and spacious edifice, standing upon the higher of two terraces fronted by stately elms, and surrounded with grounds, adorned with trees, and shrubs, and flowers. This pleasant spot possesses a double interest in the eyes of visitors. In other days the antique mansion was the head-quarters of the illustrious Washington, previous to the evacuation of Boston; and Longfellow has thus recalled the past in the reminiscences suggested by the sight of the old oak-panels in his sumptuous study

at Liverpool, he received a most cordial welcome. A few days after, he visited Carlisle, and was the guest of Captain Ferguson, of Morton. The Literary and Mechanics' Institute in that city presented him with an address, to which, in replying, he said that they could not think how very grateful and pleasant it was to him to find his name had a place in their memories and their affections, when he had believed that, in coming to the land of his fathers, he would have found no trace of his family or name, even in the streets of towns, or on the outside of the ouses of the living; but only in the graveyard, and on the doors of the dead. On the afternoon of the same day, the 13th of June, he visited Eden Hall, the seat of the ancient border clan of the Musgraves, where is still preserved the ancient goblet of the Luck of Edinburgh.

Mr. Longfellow visited Cambridge on the 16th of June, and received from the ancient university in that town the degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.), amid much athusiasm from a large and distinguishe Luditory. It is pleasant that a leading poet of the United States should have been thus honoured by a university generally as sparing of its favours as Cambridge; but it is especially noteworthy that this mark of esteem towards Longfellow should have been considered as a partial return for the kindness of America towards Mr. Charles Dickens.

On the afternoon of Saturday, the 4th of July, Longfellow had the honour of an interview with the Queen at Windsor Castle; and during his stay in London he had a grand dinner given to him at the Langham Hotel. Portland-place, by the distinguished artist, Mr. Bierstadt. The entertainment was brilliant in the extreme, and thoroughly international in character, the attendance comprising some of the most celebrated men on both sides of the Atlantic. Amongst them was the great statesman, Mr. Gladstone, who, after dinner, in very appropriate remarks, called on the company to drink heartily to the health, happiness, and fame of their guest. A few things occuried at this dinner which ought not to be passed over in silence, on account of their novelty. A likeness of the poet was attached to the bill of fare placed before the company; and to that especially prepared for Longfellow himself, a small oil picture, painted by Mr. Bierstadt, was attached, the subject being the "Departure of Hiawatha," as described in the concluding lines of the poem.

"Once, ah, once, within these walls
One whom memory oft recalls,
The Father of his Country, dwelt.
And yonder meadows broad and damp
The fires of the besieging camp
Encircled with a burning belt.
Up and down these echoing stairs,
Heavy with the weight of cares,
Sounded his majestic tread;
Yes, within this very room
Sat he in those hours of gloom,
Weary both in heart and head.'

The following interesting account of Longfellow's residence is from an American

source:

It is certainly a grand old estate, this residence of Longfellow's; almost too grand, indeed, to harmonize with one's romantic notion of wha: the abode of rhyme-compelling genius should be. It is such a house as the untitled family aristocracy of America are wont to delight invery ancient for the new world, built with that substantial massiveness and unpretending plainness which symbolize the characteristics of prerevolutionary generations. A simple, low, stone wall, settled a little by time, separates the square lawn from the street; half way rises: high, plain, wooden gateway. Looking with ease over the wall, the passer-by may behold at leisure the residence of the poet and its surroundings. On either side of the walk from the gate to the house is a pretty simple lawn, carefully kept, unvaried by trees. In the centre is a fountain which, however, is covered with moss whether by neglect or through the fancy of the proprietor, we know not, A small terrace surrounds the house, which is a few feet above the lawn; steps conduct one up to the huge, slightly

Just before Longfellow's departure to the south of Europe, he spent some days in the Isle of Wight, at the residence of a congenial spirit-ornamented door. On either side, and at the England's greatest living poet, Tennyson.

The criticisms upon the works of Longfellow are almost universal, and would fill more pages than this volume contains. We must therefore simply content ourselves with a short tribute to his praise by George Gilfillan, who speaks of his poems as being inspirited with poetic life, decorated with chaste image, and shadowed with pensive sentiment, like the hand of manhood laid gently on the billowy head of childhood." This same writer has said, glancing critically at all the poems of Longfellow, that his genius is essentially lyric; that he has neither the severity of the epic power nor the subtlety of the dramatic genius, and that he swiftly and surely responds to the "passing impulses that come upon his soul."

THE RESIDENCE OF LONGFELLOW. In order to render our sketch of the American poet the more interesting, we give an illustration of Longfellow's house. It is situated in an old American town, which the original settlers are said to have intended as the capital of Massachusetts, and which they dignified with the name of Cambridge-a school, erected and en

At

back of the house, are some large, handsome elms, beyond them a neat but plain garden. Around the edge of the walls which separate this estate from neighbouring ones, are groups of tall lilac bushes and other shrubs. the side of the house towards the university is a cool porch, roofed, supplied with benches and chairs, and looking out upon a graceful clump of elms. This porch is one of the fa vourite haunts of the poet; very often he is to be seen there towards evening. bare-headed, walking or conversing with his children. The house itself is of wood, high, with slightly slanting roof, old-fashioned windows fancifully decorated at the top with an old look which is charming to the lover of antiquities, and by its homeli ness without, seems to invite to cozy cheerfulness, to roaring fires, to genial welcome within. It has long ago been painted yellow; the paint, at frequent intervals, has disappeared: still the house looks venerable, not at all slovenly. If it did not possess, in its present occupant, a living and most interesting attraction, it would still have a charm to all, as a specimen of the mansions of the provincial aristocracy, when Massachusetts was still a province; and to Americans, because it has a history connected with the

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