Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/303

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

��233

��On the 7th of December Freiligrath writes to Longfellow :

" Are you not chuckling over the war which is waging in the (London) Athenaeum about the measure of ' Hiawatha ' ? Of course William Howitt is right, and your trochaic metre is taken from the Finns, and not from the Spaniards."

Again on the 21st he writes :

" The controversy is still raging. After a month's itching of my writing fingers I s.hall break forth in to-morrow's Athenceum. I trust the way in which I do so may be liked and approved by you."

Freiligrath's letter appeared on the 29th of December. He dismisses the idea of a Spanish derivation, and says that " every page of ' Hiawatha ' is the parallelism of the Finnish runes, a rhetorical figure, altogether peculiar to this group of national poetry. I will not say that ' Hiawatha ' is written ' hi the old national metre of Finland,' but there can be no doubt but that it is written in a modified Finnish metre, modified by the exquisite feeling of the American poet, according to the genius of the English language, and to the wants of modern taste."

On the 27th of May, 1868, Longfellow sailed from New York on his last visit to Europe. He had with him his three young daughters and his son just married, a brother, two sisters, and Mr. T. G. Appleton. Four days previously, at the parting dinner at the house of the Fields, Oliver Wendell Holmes read a poem of affectionate farewell, which included the following lines :

Forgive the simple words that sound like praise ;

The mist before me dims my gilded phrase ;

Our speech at best is half alive and cold,

And save that tenderer moments make us bold,

Our whitening lips would close, their truest truth untold.

What wishes, longings, blessings, prayers, shall be

The more than golden freight that floats with thee ?

And know, whatever welcome thou shalt find,

Thou who hast won the hearts of half mankind,

The proudest, fondest love thou lea vest still behind.

The enthusiasm with which Longfellow was received on reaching the shores of England told him that, although " The proudest, fondest love " might have been left behind, he yet came as no unwelcome guest, and that the friends whose voices had been softened by the distance rejoiced to tell him how for long years his books had been household treasures in every English home how in them the young had found inspiration, and the mother mourning for her child had the sweet consolation that it was not in anger her loved one had been taken, but that an angel had visited the green earth and borne her flower away, to blossom in the fields of light above.

Like many Americans coming over in June, Longfellow went directly to the English lakes. In his modesty he had no conception of the affection with which his writings had caused him to be

��Freiligrath

writes to

Longfellow.

��Longfellow's

last visit to

Europe.

��Farewell poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

��Enthusiastic

reception on

reaching

England.

��1907, Apr. 1G.

Visits the

English

Lakes.

�� �