|
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Brahmin Poet, 1807-1882
"It has fallen to the lot of some American poets to be more
admired than Longfellow, to some, perhaps, to be more praised, but to none
to be better loved. His lyrics have found their way to homes and hearts the
world over. Men, women, and children read his poetry because it tells, in
simple, direct fashion, the story of the common experiences of life. It is a
pleasure to remember that the man lived what the poet sang, that his
courtesy and gentle dignity were the habits of a lifetime, and that his own
scholarly attainments never made him exacting toward others.
Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, 'in an old, square,
wooden house upon the edge of the sea.' His mother was a descendant of the
John Alden whose wooing he celebrated; his father's family came from
Hampshire, England. He went to Bowdoin College, where, in the later years of
his course, a few poems testify to his love of nature and of legend. He was
a classmate of Nathaniel Hawthorne, George B. Cheever, and J. S. C. Abbott.
Like most of the literary men of his time, he intended to be a lawyer; but
the offer of the professorship of modern languages in his college,
determined him to go abroad and fit himself for the work. His stay covered
two years.
From 1829 to 1835, when he was chosen to succeed Mr. Ticknor
at Harvard, Longfellow lectured to Bowdoin students and wrote for the North
American Review. Allen & Ticknor, in 1833, published his first book,
containing an essay on the Moral and Devotional Poetry of Spain, and some
translations of Lope de Vega's sonnets. Before entering on his duties at
Harvard, Longfellow paid another visit to Europe, lingering in Switzerland
and Scandinavia. The beneficial effect of European culture at this period of
the poet's development has been questioned; and indeed, if Outre-Mer
(1835) and Hyperion (1839) had been its only outcome, the public
would have reason for regret that he ever left his native shores. These two
books, although they were once very popular, mark a time when he exchanged
sentiment for sentimentality, and accepted mannerism for style. But the
Voices of the Night, also published in 1839, contains some of the very
best of his less pretentious work—poems whose simple
truth and natural expression. render them popular—The
Reaper and the Flowers, Woods in Winter, and The Psalm of Life.
The small volume of Ballads, and other Poems, appeared in 1841. The
poet's return from Europe, in 1842, was marked by the Poems on Slavery,
dedicated to Channing. About this time Longfellow gave a series of lectures
on Dante, illustrating them by translations from the work of the great
Italian poet.
By the end of the year 1846, he had published the Spanish
Student, a collection of translations called The Poets of Europe,
and The Belfry of Bruges. The next year is marked by the appearance
of Evangeline, the poet's :favorite of all his works, and the one
perhaps that is most dear to the public, although even it could not succeed
in the mission of naturalizing the hexameter among us. The subject was one
suggested to Hawthorne by a friend, but he rejected it as unfit for a story,
and handed it over to Longfellow, who saw its possibilities. Kavanagh,
a novel of little power, and a volume of poems called The Seaside and the
Fireside, were published in 1849; The Golden Legend, a drama, in
1851. Hiawatha (1855) raised a storm of enthusiasm and literary controversy
as to the cause of its success and its probable permanence. Longfellow
called the poem 'An Indian Edda;' the scene was among the Ojibways, near
Lake Superior; the meter is rhymeless trochaic tetrameter. Dr. Oliver
Wendell Holmes has given an ingenious explanation of the popularity of this
meter on physiological sounds. The European critics attribute its success to
the fact of its being modified from the common Finnish measure. The
Courtship of Miles Standish was another successful essay in hexameter,
followed by The Tales of a Wayside Inn a collection of poems on
various subjects; The New England Tragedies, The Divine Tragedy,
and The Hanging the Crane (1874).
Mr. Longfellow had resigned his professorship in 1854. He continued his
residence in the 'Craigie House,' famous as the headquarters of Washington
in Cambridge [Massachusetts]. There he was, as he says, 'too happy,' and
there, in 1861, the tragedy of his life occurred. His wife's dress caught
fire as she sat among her children, and she was burned to death. The
translation of the Divine Comedy of Dante (1867) was the poet's refuge in
his sorrow. It is extremely literal, and has been both praised and blamed on
that account. The closing years of Longfellow's life were rich in friendship
and success, but there is an increasing seriousness in all his work. The
poem, Morituri Salutamus, which he read. at the fiftieth anniversary
of his graduation at Bowdoin, is weighty with feeling. In 1880 came
Ultima Thule; in 1881 a sonnet on the death of President Garfield.
Hermes Trismegistus was his last poem. He died in 1882, and was buried
near the 'three friends'—Charles Sumner, Louis Agassiz, and Cornelius
Felton—whom he had loved so dearly and mourned so sincerely. England has
honored his genius by giving his bust a place in Westminster Abbey."
Source: English & American Literature, Shaw & Backus, p.429
Sample Works
Paul Revere's Ride
The Children's Hour
The Village Blacksmith
The Witnesses
Return to
Boston Literature Page
|
|
