HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882) BY CHARLES FREDERICK JOHNSON HE poet Longfellow was born February 27th, 1807, in the town of Portland, Maine; and died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1882. He came of the best New England ancestry, tra cing his descent in one line back to John Alden and Priscilla Mullin of the original Plymouth Colony, whose marriage he celebrates in the 'Courtship of Miles Standish.' He graduated from Bowdoin in 1825, in the same class with Nathaniel Hawthorne. Even in his boyhood he evinced the refinement, the trustworthy, equable judgment, and the love for the quietly beautiful in literature, which were his most strongly marked characteristics through life. Such elements are sure to develop, and it was safe to send the young Longfellow at nineteen for a three-years' stay in Europe. His nature had no affinity for evil in any form; partly from the lack of emotional intensity, and partly from natural sympathy with all that was beautiful and of good report. He acquired during his tour of Europe a knowledge of the French, German, Italian, and Spanish languages, and a general literary acquaintance with the best writers in them. He had shown in college some aptitude for versification and for languages, and wen abroad to fit himself for the position of professor of modern lan guages in Bowdoin. His industrious devotion to true culture through out life is evidence of an overmastering bent. In 1829 he returned to America and took the professorship of modern languages at Bow. doin. In 1831 he married Mary Potter. In 1835 he published 'Outre Mer,' a sketchy account of his year abroad, in a form evidently suggested by Irving's 'Sketch Book. though by no means rivaling Irving's quaint and charming humor. From 1831 he contributed a number of articles on literary subjects to the North American Review; and in 1833 he published his first poetical work, Coplas (couplets or verses) 'de Manrique,'-translations of Spanish verse. His gradually increasing reputation as a writer and enthusiastic instructor led to his appointment in 1835 as professor of modern languages at Harvard,-then as now on the lookout for young scholars likely to add to the reputation of the University. Before entering upon his new duties he went abroad to perfect his 9144 knowledge of the Teutonic languages. He was accompanied by his young wife, who died at Rotterdam in 1835. In 1836 he settled at Cambridge, living in the well-known Craigie House, which had been occupied by Washington when the headquarters of the army were near Boston. In 1843 he made his third voyage to Europe; and in the same year he married Frances Appleton, and the Craigie House —thenceforward to be one of the literary landmarks of Americabecame his home. His environment was an ideal one; and though he was somewhat burdened with the drudgery of his professorship, he added almost yearly to his reputation as a poet. He published Voices of the Night' in 1839; 'Ballads and Other Poems, 1841; Poems on Slavery,' 1842; The Spanish Student,' 1843; Belfry of Bruges,' 1846; Evangeline,' 1847; 'Seaside and Fireside, 1850; 'The Golden Legend,' 1851; and the prose works 'Hyperion (1839) and Kavanagh' (1849), which last add very little if anything to his reputation. Finally, in 1854 he felt justified in resigning his position, that his literary activity might be uninterrupted He was succeeded by Lowell, and it is doubtful if a like fitness of succession could be discovered in academic annals. He remained the first literary figure in America till his death in 1882, and his European reputation was but little inferior to that which he enjoyed in his own country. He received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard in 1859 and in 1868 from Cambridge, England, and the D. C. L. from Oxford in the same year. The peaceful and prosperous tenor of his life was disturbed by one terrible misfortune. His wife met her death in 1861 from the accidental burning of her dress. Otherwise his career was of almost idyllic tranquillity. He had the happy capacity of being cheered by appreciative praise and unaffected by adverse criticism. He attracted numerous friends, among them Felton, Sumner, Agassiz, Lowell, Hawthorne. His nature was so well balanced that he is his own best biographer; and appears to better advantage in his letters and diary, published by his brother, than in any of the lives that have appeared. If we judge from his diary, Longfellow was never subject to overmastering impulses, but always acted with foresight, not from selfish calculation, but from a sane and temperate judgment. He was as trustworthy at nineteen as if years of experience had molded his character and settled his principles of conduct. In fact, he negatives the theory of original sin,-the flower of Puritanism disproves the cherished Puritan dogma. This quality of radical goodness of heart is reflected in his verse. The ardor of soul, the deep dejection and despair, the rebellion, of the revolutionary natures are entirely nknown to him. He is the poet of the well-disposed, the virtuous 9145 and intelligent New-Englander; in whose land there is found only a mild and colorless beauty untormented by cyclones or active volcanoes, and nature is not altogether favorable, nor entirely hostile, to humanity. To Hawthorne, New England was full of a quaint mystery; in Longfellow's world there was no hell, and hardly room for a picturesque old-fashioned Devil. This is not so much due to superficial observation as to the fact that he simply avoided or ignored the places where "Satan shows his cloven foot and hides his titled name." Even in Longfellow's antislavery poems there is no hint of consuming indignation. His mark is charm and grace rather than power. In his own words, he is not one of "the bards sublime, Whose distant footsteps echo He does not appeal to the great elemental passions, but rather to the pathetic sense of the transitoriness of familiar and every-day scenes, to the conviction that the calm joys of home are after all the surest foretaste of happiness allowed to man, and that the performance of duty is as noble in the humble sphere as in the elevated one: in a word, to a range of feelings that are based on reality, though they exist in the more superficial part of our natures. Therefore, Longfellow, though a man of general culture, does not write for the literary public. His relation is to the great body of readers, though his personal intimacies seem to have been almost exclusively with literary or academic people. Sympathy with the broadly human is one of the marks of the true poet. To put simple things into graceful and intelligible poetic form requires genius; for thousands try to do it every day, and fail for lack of the special gift. Longfellow succeeded; and those who say that his themes and method are alike commonplace forget that the touch which illuminates the commonplace is the most delicate in art. In consequence of this characteristic of simplicity and graceful melody, many of Longfellow's lyrics have become general favorites. 'Resignation,' 'The Skeleton in Armor,' 'My Lost Youth,' 'The Old Clock on the Stairs,' The Arrow and the Song,' the 'Psalm of Life,' 'Excelsior,' 'The Wreck of the Hesperus,' 'The Arsenal at Springfield,' 'The Jewish Cemetery at Newport,' and many others, have a secure lodgment in the popular memory. They are known to more people than are familiar with an equal number of the lyrics of Wordsworth. Longfellow's clientèle is larger than that of any other modern poet except Burns. The Building of the Ship'--long enough to be called an ode—has had as much effect in developing a sense of nationality as anything ever written: not excepting the |