HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

Longfellow has added the sense of fancy to American life. As a poet he is distinguished in American literature for imagination in his literary treatment and for largeness and skill in the framing of his ideas and pictures. At the time he wrote he cast his seed into a warm, moist soil already fertilized by previous literary efforts. As a man his life is full of charm and of suggestiveness for study.'

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born at Portland, Maine, February 22, 1807. His father was a man much honored in the state; it was from his mother that he inherited a taste for romance. In his home he had access to Shakespeare, Milton, Thomson, Goldsmith, Johnson's Lives of the Poets, Plutarch's Lives and the like. "As a boy he was of a tender, sensitive disposition," but was also "the sunlight of the house.""

1 His biography by his brother, Rev. Samuel Longfellow, has merit not only for authenticity, but for the fulness with which we see the personality and the humanity of the most lovable of American characters.

• While he was in college he corresponded with his mother on the subject of Gray's Odes, for instance, expressing his admiration of them. In reply she stated her own poetical opinions and observations.-Life, vol. i., pp. 29-32.

For a glimpse of his home in childhood, see ibid, vol. i., pp. 14, 15.

In 1821 he entered Bowdoin, where, in his observance of regular study and in his pursuit of general literature, he seems to have been one of those who have the strength and poise for success both in duty and in ambition.

Graduating in 1825, he spent from 1826 to 1829 travelling and studying in continental Europe; was professor of modern languages at Bowdoin from 1829 to 1835; and after another year abroad, occupied the same position at Harvard from 1835 till 1856.

Longfellow's earlier poems, which were written before he was nineteen, show the influence of Bryant, but no sign of his own later power, his rich nature requiring the favor of many literary conditions and of much stimulus before it would fully come forth; for a dozen years he wrote not a single original poem.

In 1833 Longfellow published his stately translation of the Coplas of Manrique, who was one of a number of modern poets Longfellow handled in a similar way. In 1835 he put forth Outre Mer, a succession of papers having a general resemblance to Irving's Sketch-Book,' but by the thread of their narrative connected more closely together.

Four years later appeared Hyperion, a second prose romance, which was strongly suggestive of the interest in German literature then becoming active. From this source, and from his study of the Greek poets, is partly due the inspiration of Longfellow's poems Flowers, A Psalm of Life, and others in the

I Longfellow, while writing the Hyperion had this resemblance in mind. The Sketch-Book was also Longfellow's first favorite volume.

Voices of the Night, which was published, like Hyperion, in 1839.

Longfellow's first truly poetical inspiration did not find him unprepared. His early modest sense of immaturity and littleness before the great works upon which he had for several years been musing, had led him to sympathetic study. Now, in 1839, he had his materials ready and his sensibilities trained. If he wanted anything from foreign literature to aid him in the composition of a poem, he knew readily where he could find what he desired. He had also acquired taste, appreciation, a sense of proportion, a true perception of the beautiful, and unusual technical skill. Accordingly, from the Voices of the Night on, his works flowed from him easily and increased rapidly in strength and variety, for he had then merely to perform that difficult literary function which deals with the concrete expression of the beautiful, or in its higher form with the harmonious creating and proportioning which constitutes imagination.

The Skeleton in Armor, the outcome of about two years' brooding and painstaking, was a long step forward. Still more reproductive of the old ballad is the Wreck of the Hesperus. About the same time came the popular Village Blacksmith. Among others of about the same date, The Slave Singing at Midnight has an unconscious power of outspokenness; The Spanish Student, a play, is the most ambitious of Longfellow's writings up to this time';

1 Note, however, the pleasing and graceful scene between Vittorio and Preciosa.

and The Arsenal at Springfield, The Bridge, and The Old Clock on the Stairs are, each in their own way, of conspicuous merit.

In 1847, with Evangeline, Longfellow's first successful poem which was written in hexameter verse, he sounded a deeper and more sustained pathos than ever before. Kavanagh, in 1849, a prose tale, containing an occasional note of gentle satire,' is a series of pleasant pictures of New England life and sentiment half a century ago. Shorter poems with subjects well treated are The Building of the Ship, The Light-House, and The Fire of DriftWood.

In 1851, Longfellow published The Golden Legend, the first of the trilogy, the Christus, on which he labored from the time of its first conception for over thirty years. The Golden Legend on a sacred theme continues the strain of pathos shown by Longfellow in Evangeline, and deals with the spirit of Christianity as revealed in the Middle Ages.

The Song of Hiawatha, in 1855, has been called America's first contribution to world literature. In this poem, Longfellow, having perceived the poetic capabilities of the Indian legends, welded them into a whole, the life of which is quickened by invention of his own. A breath of nature passes over the pages, and the public attention hitherto paid to the mechanism and commonplace narratives

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Such as the exquisite Chapter XX., with its caricature in the personage, Hathaway, and with the suggestive truth of its discussion. 2 1841-1873.

of the poem may well be turned to the higher flights of fancy and imagination.'

In 1846, Longfellow, while visiting Portland, meditated a poem on his old home, and nine years later wrote My Lost Youth. A little later came The Children's Hour, Paul Revere's Ride, and the fine lyric, The Bells of Lynn.

The Courtship of Miles Standish, in 1858, is a welltold and very life-like story in hexameters. An excellent, serious shorter poem of about the same time is the Warden of the Cinque Ports.

Longfellow's translation of the Divine Comedy, which appeared several years later, is the best English version. Not only is the original rendered line for line, but the translation itself has a poetic charm thrown around it.

The New England Tragedies, in 1869, made up the second part issued of Longfellow's sacred trilogy. The first of these two pathetic plays images the persecution of the Quakers by Endicott, who was himself in the power of the harsh superstition which was part of his creed. In the second tragedy, it is the fear of witchcraft which moves men to sacrifice their victims. Two years later, the third part of the trilogy, The Divine Tragedy, narrated in verse the story of the gospels, drawing from these the words of Christus, but imagining those of the minor personages. Among Longfellow's best subsequent poems are The Four Lakes of Madison and The Leap of Roushan Beg. Michael Angelo, a long poem,

1 To the beautiful description, for example, of the combat between Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis.