Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/309

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

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��Longfellow was of medium height, and his face is familiar His magnetic to us from many delightful portraits. In later years his silvery charm, hair was carelessly thrown back from his forehead ; a full beard and moustache partially concealed the pleasant mouth ; but his mild blue eyes expressed the kindliness of his heart and his quick reading of the hearts of others. All who had the privilege of being received in his home tell us of his exquisite simplicity of manners, and his soft, sweet, musical voice, which, like his face, had the innate charm of tranquillity ; he had what the French aptly call the " politeness of the heart," and a magnetism which drew all hearts towards him. Mrs. Carlyle remembered his visit to them at Oaigenputtock as "the visit of an angel" ; and William Winter, who had been greeted by him as a young aspirant in literature, would walk miles to Longfellow's house only to put his hand upon the latch of the gate which the poet himself had touched.

Whittier wrote to Aldrich a few days after Longfellow's death :

" It seems as if I could never write again. A feeling of unutterable sorrow and loneliness oppresses me ";

and in a letter to his niece, Mrs. Pickard, he said :

" He has been an influence for good ; all the Christian virtues his verse and his life exemplified. Pure, kindly, and courteous, simple, yet scholarly, he was never otherwise than a gentleman, There is no blot on the crystal purity of his writings."

While America was full of grief for her son, England mourned for him as for a brother. The British press was as one with the American in its chorus of praise, and The Athenceum pronounced him to be " the most popular of English-speaking poets." In the same number appeared tributes from Mr. Hall Caine and Mr. Austin Dobson. I quote the closing lines of the latter :

Lie calm, O white and laureate head I Lie calm, O Dead, that art not dead,

Since from the voiceless grave Thy voice shall speak to old and young While song yet speaks an English tongue

By Charles' or Thamis' wave I

It is pleasant to record that Mr. Dobson's verses are preserved in a volume on the library table at Craigie House.

Although the remains of the beloved poet rightly rest in the land of his birth, we in England desired to have him associated with our own Valhalla, and my old friend the late Dr. W. C. Bennett, well remembered for his ' Songs for Sailors,' gave voice to the universal feeling that a bust of him should be placed in our own Poets' Corner. Very soon a powerful committee was formed

��Sorrow in

America and

England.

Tributes in

The

Athenceum

of Mr. Hall

Caine and

Mr. Austin

Dobson.

��Bust in

Westminster

Abbey.

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