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LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH (1807-1882)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 980 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LONGFELLOW, See also:HENRY WADSWORTH (1807-1882) ,' See also:American poet, was See also:born on the 27th of See also:February 1807, at See also:Portland, See also:Maine. His ancestor, See also:William Longfellow, had immigrated to See also:Newbury, See also:Massachusetts, in 1676, from See also:Yorkshire, See also:England. His See also:father was See also:Stephen Longfellow, a lawyer and See also:United States congressman, and his See also:mother, Zilpha Wadsworth, a descendant of See also:John Alden and of " Priscilla, the Puritan See also:maiden." Longfellow's See also:external See also:life presents little that is of stirring See also:interest. It is the life of a modest, deep-hearted See also:gentleman, whose highest ambition was to be a perfect See also:man, and, through sympathy and love, to help others to be the same. His boyhood was spent mostly in his native See also:town, which he never ceased to love, and whose beautiful surroundings and quiet, pure life he has described in his poem " My Lost Youth." Here he See also:grew up in the midst of majestic See also:peace, which was but once broken, and that by an event which made a deep impression on him—the See also:War of 1812. He never forgot " the See also:sea-fight far away, How it thundered o'er the See also:tide, And the dead captains as they See also:lay In their See also:graves o'erlooking the tranquil See also:bay, Where they in See also:battle died." The " tranquil bay " is Casco Bay, one of the most beautiful in the See also:world, studded with bold, See also:green islands, well fitted to be the See also:Hesperides of a poet's boyish dreams. At the See also:age of fifteen Longfellow entered See also:Bowdoin See also:College at See also:Brunswick, a town situated near the romantic falls of the Androscoggin See also:river, about 25 M. from Portland, and in a region full of See also:Indian scenery and See also:legend. Here he had among his classfellows, Nathaniel See also:Hawthorne, See also:George B. Cheever and J. S. C. See also:Abbott.

During the latter years of his college life he contributed to the United States See also:

Literary See also:Gazette some See also:half-dozen poems, which are interesting for two reasons-(1) as showing the poet's See also:early, See also:book-mediated sympathy with nature and legendary heroisms, and (2) as being almost entirely See also:free from that supernatural view of nature which his subsequent See also:residence in See also:Europe imparted to him. He graduated in 1825, at the age of eighteen, with honours, among others that of See also:writing the " class poem "—taking the See also:fourth See also:place in a class of See also:thirty-eight. He then entered his father's See also:law See also:office, without intending, however, it would appear, to devote himself to the study of the law. For this profession he was, both by capacity and tastes, utterly unfitted, and it was fortunate that, shortly after his See also:graduation, he received an offer of a professorship of See also:modern See also:languages at Bowdoin College. In See also:order the better to qualify himself for this See also:appointment, he went to Europe (May 15th, 1826) and spent three years and a half travelling in See also:France, See also:Italy, See also:Spain, See also:Germany, See also:Holland and England, learning languages, for which he had unusual See also:talent, and drinking in the spirit of the See also:history and life of these countries. The effect of Longfellow's visit was twofold. On the one See also:hand, it widened his sympathies, gave him confidence in himself and supplied him with many poetical themes; on the other, it traditionalized his mind, coloured for him the pure See also:light of nature and rendered him in some measure unfit to feel or See also:express the spirit of American nature and life. His sojourn in Europe See also:fell exactly in the See also:time when, in England, the reaction against the sentimental See also:atheism of See also:Shelley, the See also:pagan sensitivity of See also:Keats, and the See also:sublime, Satanic outcastness of See also:Byron was at its height; when, in the See also:Catholic countries, the negative exaggerations of the See also:French Revolution were inducing a See also:counter current of See also:positive faith, which threw men into the arms of a half-sentimental, half-aesthetic medievalism; and when, in Germany, the aristocratic paganism of See also:Goethe was being swept aside by that tide of dutiful, romantic patriotism which flooded the See also:country, as soon as it began to feel that it still existed after being run over by See also:Napoleon's war-See also:chariot. He returned to See also:America in 1829, and remained six years at Bowdoin College (1829–1835), during which he published various See also:text-books for the study of modern languages. In his twenty-fourth See also:year (1831) he married See also:Miss See also:Mary See also:Story See also:Potter, one of his " early loves." In 1833 he made a See also:series of See also:translations from the See also:Spanish, with an See also:essay on the moral and devotional See also:poetry of Spain, and these were incorporated in 1835 in Outre-mer: a See also:Pilgrimage beyond the Sea. In 1835 Longfellow was chosen to succeed George See also:Ticknor as See also:professor of modern languages and belles-lettres in Harvard. On receiving this appointment, he paid a second visit of some fifteen months to Europe, this time devoting See also:special See also:attention to the Scandinavian countries and See also:Switzerland.

During this visit he lost his wife, who died at See also:

Rotterdam, on the 29th of, See also:November 1835. On his return to America in See also:December 1836, Longfellow took up his residence in See also:Cambridge, and began to lecture at Harvard and to write. In his new See also:home he found himself amid surroundings entirely congenial to him. Its spaciousness andfree rural aspect, Its old graveyards and towering elms, its See also:great university, its cultivated society and its vicinity to humane, substantial, busy See also:Boston, were all attractions for such a man. In 1837–1838 several essays of Longfellow's appeared in the See also:North American See also:Review, and in 1839 he published See also:Hyperion : a See also:Romance, and his first See also:volume of See also:original poetry, entitled Voices of the See also:Night. Hyperion, a poetical See also:account of his travels, had, at the time of its publication, an immense popularity, due mainly to its sentimental romanticism. At See also:present few persons beyond their teens would care to read it through, so unnatural and See also:stilted is its See also:language, so thin its material and so consciously mediated its sentiment. Nevertheless it has a certain See also:historical importance, for two reasons—(1) because it marks that See also:period in Longfellow's career when, though he had See also:left nature, he had not yet found See also:art, and (2) because it opened the sluices through which the See also:flood of See also:German sentimental poetry flowed into the United States. The Voices of the Night contains some of his best See also:minor poems, e.g. " The See also:Psalm of Life " and " Footsteps of Angels." In 1842 See also:Long-See also:fellow published a small volume of See also:Ballads and other Poems, containing some of his most popular pieces, e.g. " The See also:Skeleton in See also:Armour," " The See also:Wreck of the See also:Hesperus," " The See also:Village See also:Black-See also:smith," " To a See also:Child," " The See also:Bridge," " Excelsior." In the same year he paid a third brief visit to Europe, spending the summer on the See also:Rhine. During his return-passage across the See also:Atlantic he wrote his Poems on See also:Slavery (1842), with a See also:dedication to See also:Channing.

These poems went far to See also:

wake in the youth of New England a sense of the great See also:national wrong, and to prepare them for that See also:bitter struggle in which it was wiped out at the expense of the lives of so many of them. In 1843 he married again, his wife being Miss Frances See also:Elizabeth See also:Appleton of Boston, a daughter of Hon. Nathan Appleton, one of the founders of See also:Lowell, and a See also:sister of See also:Thomas G. Appleton, himself no mean poet. About the same time he bought, and fixed his residence in, the See also:Craigie See also:House, where he had formerly only been a lodger, an old " revolutionary house," built about the beginning of the 18th See also:century, and occupied by See also:General See also:Washington in 1776. This See also:quaint old wooden house, in the midst of a large See also:garden full of splendid elms, continued to be his See also:chief residence till the See also:day of his See also:death. Of the lectures on See also:Dante which he delivered about this time, See also:James See also:Russell Lowell says: " These lectures, illustrated by admirable translations, are remembered with grateful See also:pleasure by many who were thus led to learn the full significance of the great See also:Christian poet." Indeed, as a professor, Longfellow was eminently successful. Shortly after the Poems on Slavery, there appeared in 1843 a more ambitious See also:work, The Spanish Student, a See also:Play in Three Acts, a See also:kind of sentimental " Morality," without any special merit but See also:good intention If published nowadays it would hardly attract See also:notice; but in those gushing, emotion-craving times it had considerable popularity, and helped to increase the poet's now rapidly widening fame. A huge collection of translations of See also:foreign poetry edited by him, and entitled The Poets and Poetry of Europe, appeared in 1845, and, in 1846, a few minor poems—songs and sonnets—under the See also:title The See also:Belfry of See also:Bruges. In 1847 he published at Boston the greatest of all his See also:works, Evangeline, a See also:Tale of See also:Acadie. It was, in some degree, an See also:imitation of Goethe's See also:Hermann and Dorothea, and its See also:plot, which was derived from Hawthorne's American See also:Note-Books, is even simpler than that of the German poem, not to say much more touching. At the violent removal by the See also:British See also:government of a See also:colony of French settlers from Acadie (Nova See also:Scotia) in 1755, a See also:young couple, on the very day of their See also:wedding, were separated and carried in different directions, so that they lost all trace of each other.

The poem de-See also:

scribes the wanderings of the See also:bride in See also:search of her See also:lover, and her final See also:discovery of him as an old man on his death-See also:bed, in a public See also:hospital which she had entered as a See also:nurse. Slight as the story is, it is worked out into one of the most affecting poems in the language, and gives to literature one of its most perfect types of womanhood and of " See also:affection that hopes and endures and is patient." Though written in a See also:metre deemed foreign to See also:English ears, the poem immediately attained a wide popu larity, which it has never lost, and secured to the dactylic See also:hexameter a recognized place among English metres. In 1849 Longfellow published a novel of no great merit, See also:Kavanagh, and also a volume of poems entitled The Seaside and the Fireside, a title which has reference to his two homes, the seaside one on the charming See also:peninsula of Nahant, the fireside one in Cambridge. One of the poems in this collection, " Resig nation," has taken a permanent place in literature; another, " Hymn for my See also:Brother's Ordination," shows plainly the nature of the poet's See also:Christianity. His brother, the Rev. See also:Samuel Long-fellow, was a See also:minister of the Unitarian See also:Church. Longfellow's See also:genius, in its choice of subjects, always oscillated between America and Europe, between the colonial period of American history and the See also:Middle and Romantic Ages of See also:European feeling. When tired of the broad daylight of American activity, he sought See also:refuge and See also:rest in the dim See also:twilight of See also:medieval legend and German sentiment. In 1851 appeared The See also:Golden Legend, a long lyric See also:drama based upon See also:Hartmann von Aue's beautiful story of self-See also:sacrifice, Der arme Heinrich. Next to Evangeline, this is at once the best and the most popular of the poet's longer works, and contains many passages of great beauty. Bringing his See also:imagination back to America, he next applied himself to the elaboration of an Indian legend. In 1854 he' (resigned his professorship.

In the following year he gave -to the world the Indian See also:

Edda, The See also:Song of See also:Hiawatha, a conscious imitation, both in subject and metre, of the Finnish epic, the Kalevala, with which he had become acquainted during his second visit to Europe. The metre is monotonous and easily ridiculed, but it suits the subject, and the poem is very popular. In 1.858 appeared The Courtship of See also:Miles See also:Standish,, based on a charming incident in the early history of the See also:Plymouth colony, and, along with it, a number of minor poems, included under the modest title, Birds of Passage. One of these is " My Lost Youth." Two events now occurred which served to See also:cast a gloom over the poet's life and to interrupt his activity,—the outbreak of the See also:Civil War, and the tragic See also:fate of his wife, who, having accidentally allowed her See also:dress to catch See also:fire, was burnt to death in her own house in 1861. It was long before he recovered from the See also:shock caused by this terrible event, and in his subsequent published poems he never ventured even to allude' to it. When he did in some measure find himself again, he gave to the world his charming Tales of a Wayside See also:Inn (1863), and in 1865 his See also:Household Poems. Among the latter is a poem entitled " The See also:Children's See also:Hour," which affords a glance into the home life of the widowed poet, who had been left with five children—two sons, Ernest and See also:Charles, and three daughters, " See also:Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra, And Edith with golden See also:hair." A small volume entitled See also:Flower de Luce (1867) contains, among other See also:fine things, the beautiful " threnos " on the See also:burial of Hawthorne, and " The Bells of See also:Lynn." Once more the poet sought refuge in medieval life by completing his See also:translation of the Divina Commedia, parts of which he had rendered into English as much as thirty years before. This work appeared in 1867, and gave a great impulse to the study of Dante in America. It is a masterpiece of literal translation. Next came the New England Tragedies (1868) and The Divine Tragedy (1871), which found no large public. In 1868–1869 the poet visited Europe, and was everywhere received with'the greatest See also:honour. In 1872 appeared Three Books of Song, containing translated as well as original pieces, in 1873 Aftermath and in 1875 The See also:Mask of See also:Pandora, and other Poems.

Among these " other poems " were " The See also:

Hanging of the See also:Crane," " Morituri Salutamus " and " A Book of Sonnets." The Mask of Pandora is a See also:proof of that growing appreciation of pagan See also:naturalism which marked the poet's later years. Though not a great poem, it is full of beautiful passages, many of which point to the, riddle of Iife as yet unsolved, a conviction which grew ever more and more upon the poet, as the ebulliency of romanticism gave way to the See also:calm of, classic feeling. In the " Book of Sonnets aresome of the finest things he ever wrote, especially the five sonnets entitled " Three See also:Friends of Mine." These three friends" were See also:Cornelius See also:Felton, See also:Louis See also:Agassiz and Charles See also:Sumner, whom he calls " The See also:noble three, Who half my life were more than friends to me." The loss of Agassiz was a See also:blow from which he never entirely recovered; and, when Sumner also left him, he wrote: " See also:Thou hast but taken thy See also:lamp and gone to bed; I stay a little longer, as one stays To See also:cover up the embers that still See also:burn." He did stay a little longer; but the embers that. still burnt in him refused to be covered up. He would See also:fain have ceased writing, and used to say, " It's a great thing to know when to stop "; but he could not stop, and did not stop, till the last. He continued to publish from time to time, in the magazines, poems which showed a clearness of See also:vision and a perfection of workmanship such as he never had equalled at any period of his life. Indeed it may be said that his finest poems were his last. Of these a small collection appeared under the title of Keramos, and other Poems (1878). Besides these, in the years 1875–1878 he edited a collection of Poems of Places in thirty-one small volumes. In 188o appeared Ultima See also:Thule, meant to be his last work, and it was nearly so. In See also:October 1881 he wrote a touching See also:sonnet on the death of See also:President See also:Garfield, and in See also:January 1882, when the hand of death was already upon him, his poem, See also:Hermes Trismegistus, in which he gives utterance, in language as See also:rich as that of the early gods, to that See also:strange feeling of See also:awe without fear, and See also:hope without See also:form, with which every man of spotless life and upright See also:intellect withdraws from the phenomena of time to the realities of eternity. In the last years of his life he suffered a great See also:deal from See also:rheumatism, and was, as he sometimes cheerfully, said, " never free from See also:pain." Still he remained as sunny and genial as ever, looking from his Cambridge study windows across the See also:Brighton meadows to the See also:Brookline hills, or enjoying the " free See also:wild winds of the Atlantic," and listening to " The Bells, of Lynn " in his Nahant home. He still continued to receive- all visitors, and to 'take occasional runs up to Castine and Portland, the homes of his See also:family.

About the beginning of 1882, however, a serious See also:

change took place in his See also:condition. Dizziness and want of strength confined him to his See also:room for some time, and, although after someweeks he partially recovered, his See also:elasticity and See also:powers were gone. On the 19th of See also:March he was seized with what proved to be See also:peritonitis, and he died on the 24th. The poet was buried two days afterwards near his " three friends " in See also:Mount See also:Auburn See also:cemetery. - The regret for his loss was universal; for no modern man was ever better loved or better deserved to be loved. Longfellow was made an :LL.D. of Bowdoin College in 1828, at the age of twenty-one, of Harvard in 1859 and of Cambridge (England) in 1868, and D.C.L. of See also:Oxford in 1869. In 1873 he was elected a member of .the See also:Russian See also:Academy of See also:Science; and in 1877 of the Spanish Academy. In See also:person, Longfellow was rather below middle height, broad shouldered and well built. His See also:head and See also:face were extremely handsome, his forehead broad and high, his eyes full of clear, warming fire, his See also:nose straight and graceful, his See also:chin and lips rich and full of feeling as those of the Praxitelean Hermes, and his See also:voice See also:low, melodious and full of See also:tender cadences. His hair, originally dark, became, in his later years, silvery See also:white,. and its wavy locks combined with those of his flowing See also:beard to give him that leonine See also:appearance so See also:familiar - through his later portraits. Charles See also:Kingsley said of Longfellow's face that it was the most beautiful human face he had ever seen. A bust to his memory was erected in the Poet's Corner in See also:Westminster See also:Abbey in 1884.

- In Longfellow, the poet was the flower and See also:

fruit of the man. His nature was essentially poetic, and his life the greatest of his poems. Those who knew only the poems he wrote could form but a faint notion of the See also:harmony, the sweetness, the manliness and the tenderness of that which he lived. What he would have been as a poet, if, instead of visiting Europe in early life and drinking in the spirit of the middle ages under the shadows of See also:cathedral towers, he had, like Of him it may be said with perfect truth, " He went about doing good "; and not with his See also:money merely, but also with his presence and his encouragement. To how many sad See also:hearts did he come like an See also:angel, with the rich tones of his voice waking harmonics of hope, where before there had been despair and silence? How many young literary See also:people, disappointed at the unsuccess of their first attempts, did he comfort and See also:spur on to renewed and higher efforts ! How careful he was to quench no smoking See also:flax! How utterly free he was from See also:jealousy or revengefulness ! While poor, morbid See also:Edgar See also:Allan See also:Poe was writing violent and scurrilous articles upon him, accusing him of See also:plagiarism and other literary misdemeanours, he was delivering enthusiastic lectures to his classes on Poe's poetry. His charity was unbounded. Once, when the present writer proposed to the president of the Harvard University Visiting See also:Committee that Longfellow should be placed on that committee, the president replied : " What would be the use? Longfellow could never be brought to find See also:fault with anybody or anything." And it was true.

His whole life was bathed in that sympathy, that love which suffers long and envies not, which forgives unto seventy times seven times, and as many more if need be. Even in his last years, when loss of friends and continual See also:

physical pain made life somewhat " See also:cold, and dark and dreary " for him, he never complained, lamented or blamed the arrangements of nature, and the only way in which it was possible to know that he suffered was through his ever-increasing delight in the See also:health and strength of younger men. His whole nature was summed up in the lines of his favourite poet: " Luce intellettual, piena d'amore, Amor di vero See also:ben, pien di letizia, Letizia the trascende ogni dolzore." See his Life ... with Extracts from his See also:Journals and See also:Correspondence, by Samuel Longfellow, and the " See also:Riverside " edition of the See also:prose and poems (Boston, i i vols., 1886-1890). An enlarged edition of the Life (3 vols., 1891) included the journals and correspondence, 1866-1882, published in 1887 as Final Memorials (Boston and New See also:York). Also the volume by T. W. See also:Higginson in the " American Men of Letters " series (1902) ; E. C. See also:Stedman's See also:criticism in Poets of America; and an See also:article in W. D. See also:Howells' My Literary Friends and Acquaintance (New York, 1900) which contains a valuable account of Long-fellow's later life. (T.

End of Article: LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH (1807-1882)

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