Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/494

* LONGFELLOW. 43G LONGFELLOW. In 1838 his v<ll-kii(ivn "I'salm of Life"' .ap- -peaied in the KiiicLeibocLcr Magazine, and the following vear was published, with other poems, in ]'oices of the Sight. The same year appeared Hyperion, a rather llorid romance, the heroine of which was Miss Frances Appleton, of Boston, whom he married in 1843. In 1841 such poems as "The Wreck of the Hesperus." "The Skeleton in Armor." and "The Villajic iilacksmitli." in- cluded in the volume Halltnts ami OIlur /'ocnix. confirmed his literary reputation, ami made him perhaps the most widely read of American poets. Tn 1842 he again went to England, and the same year published I'oems on l^laiery. It is sulli- cient to indicate the chief titles of his prolific later work: The Spanish Student (1843), a drama of no great merit; The Belfry of Bruges, and Other Poems (184(i) ; ErangeUne: A Tale of Aeadie (1847), a very popular narrative pastoral in hexameter verse: karanagh ( 1849). a romance of better quality tlian Hyperion ; The Seaside and the Fireside (18.50), a volume of poems which in- cluded "The Huihiing of the Ship;" The Golden Legend (18.">1) ; The Sony of Hiairatha (1855) : Tile Courtship of Miles siandish ( 1858), a narra- tive poem in hexameters; Birds of Passage (1858) ; Tales of a Wayside Inn (183), a vol- ume of narrative poems modeled on the Canter- bury Tales: Flouer-de-Luee and Other Poems (1867) ; a translation of the Divine Comedy of i)ante, in verse (1867-70) ; Xeie England Trage- dies (1868), two dramas dealing with historical «vents of early New Kngland: The Dirine Tragedy (1871) ; Three Books of Song (1872) ; Aftermath (1873)r: The Hanging of the Crane (1874); The Masque of Pandora (1875); K^- ramos and Other Poems (1878); Ultima Thule (1880); In the IJarhor (ISS'2); and MieUael Angelo. the fragment of a drama (1883). He also edited an anthology, the Poets and Poetry of Europe (1843), and>or»is of Places (1876- 79, in 31 vols.). During this time his private life had been uneventful, except for the death of his wife, through burning, in 1861. In 1854 he resigned his professorship at Harvard, and thenceforward lived quietly in Cambridge imtil his death, on ilaroh 24, 18S2. In appearance. Longfellow was of medium stature, and had rather pronounced, heavy fea- tures, cast in a mold of benignity. Kindliness was one of the chief traits of his character. As a teacher and writer he was always con- scientious and industrious. He numbered among his personal friends the most famous writers and statesmen of Xew England, as Emerson, Hawthorne, Lowell, Holmes, AVhittier, and Sum- ner. Poems of Longfellow's such as the "Psalm of Life" and "Excelsior" have gone to the heart of the American pu1)lic, and ballads such as "The Wreck of the Hesperus," "The Skeleton in Armor," and "The Xorman Baron" are on the tongue of many a schoolboy. The secret of his sviccess is that he was essentially a popular- izcr of ideas. This office manifests itself in two ways: He has given, in the first place, expres- sion to the general and commonplace emotions of American civilization of the better sort, wuth its simplicity, its plain aspiration, and its lack of subtlety. Such are his poems on slavery, which express the feeling which any humane man might have at the mention of the word, but "which lack the fire and deep emotion which a more accurate knowledge stirred in such a poet as Whittier. The "Psalm of Life," "The Build- ing of the Ship." and "The 'illage Blacksmith ' are the phrasing of thoughts dear to the heart of the average man. Akin to these are the large number of poems, of which "Hiawatha." "Evan- geline." "The Courtship of Miles Standish." and "Paul Bevcre's Ride" may be taken as examples, dealing with American life in a quasibistorical and narrative way. Doubtless quite unlike the reality which they are supposed to represent, these poems may be regarded as valual)le and popular for the same general reason that made Cooi)er"s novels famous — that they pictured an interesting and previously unknown world. In the second place, Longfellow did much to open the eyes of Americans to the beiuity of European life. He nuiy be said to have done as much as any other Anu'rican to spread the culture of modern langiuiges in his own land. This he did in verse much more widely than by his actual teaching as Smith professor of modern languages. About half of his verse deals directly with scenes, legends, and stories of European civilization. Longfellow sincerely loved beauty and romance wherever it was to be found, and the pleasant sentiment of such poems as "The lielfry of Bruges" or the narratives of the Tales of a Wayside Inn did nuich to awaken a corre- sponding glow in the hearts of his countrymen. His service to American scholarship in his trans- lation and annotation of Dante's Dicine Comedy was great. Longfellow is justly popular as the poet who has done more than almost any other American to phrase in an artistic and agreeable way the healthy feelings of life. He is surpassed by other Americans in various ways, as by Emerson in profundity and subtlety, by Lowell in vigor and wealth of ideas, by Holmes in wit, by Bryant in stateliness, by Poe in sense of form and beauty; but in general artistic sense, in taste, in kindliness, in morality, he is outstripped by none. He has been called su|ierficial. his poetry academic, his prose rhetorical, but he is cer- tainly one of the most widely difl'used forces in the emotional life of Americans. Xor should it be forgotten that in his narrative poems he pos- sesses a freshness and vigor that deserve high praise, and that he is often really ins])ireil when dealing with the sea. Bibliography. The work of Longfellow is definitively published in the Riverside Edition in 11 vols". (Boston, 1886-90). The chief sources for his biography are the Life of Henry M'ads- tcorth I.ongfelloir (Boston. 1886) . by his brother. the Rev. Samuel Longfellow, and the same edi- tor's Final Memorials of Benrg Wailsuorth Longfelloir (Boston, 1887) . These two books were later gathered in three volumes of memoirs. Con- sult, also: Robertson, in the "Great Writers Series" (London. 1887), and the critical articles in the literary histories, such as Stcdman. The Poets of America (Xew York. 1885) ; Richardson, American Literature (Xew York, 1887-88) : and Wendell. A Literary History of America ( Xew York. 1900) : Carpenter. Henry Wadsirortli Long- fellow, in the "Beacon Biographies" (Boston, 1901); Higginson, Old Cambridge (Xew York, 1889), and a life of Longfellow in "American Men of Letters" (Boston. 1902) ; Howells, Liter- an/ Friends and Acquaintance (Xew Y'ork. 1900).