HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW [Professor George E. Woodberry, an eminent poet and critic, in his "America in Literature," published by Harper & Brothers, New York, 1905, says this of Longfellow: "His trust, his humility, his hospitality to the joys and sorrows of domestic life, his tenderness, his consolation, his noble nature, his just taste in what to say and what to leave unsaid about the crises of lives not tragic, but touched with human things that have been and may be again,' his companionableness for souls not over-strenuous, but full of all the pieties of life endearing life these things give him long lease of fame. Within his unemphatic range he has an unsuspected variety, and thereby expresses without weariness, except to the life-jaded, an American nature of such sweetness, refinement, and purity, that it has become almost exemplary of an ideal of the literary life on this soil. In "Hiawatha, Evangeline, and Miles Standish, each remains the only successful poem of its kind one of Indian life, one of the Colonial pastoral, one of the Puritan idyl while the trials made by others have been numerous. each of these, and especially in the first and second, there is in quality a marvellous purity of tone which, for those who are sensitive to it, is one of the rarest of poetic pleasures. Referring to his shorter poems: "If Heaven ever grants the prayer that a poet may write the songs of a people, it is surely in such poems as these that the divine gift reveals its presence. They are in the mouths of children and on the lips of boys, and it is well; but they are also strength and consolation to older hearts. They are read in quiet hours, they are murmured in darkened rooms, they blend with the sacred experiences of many lives. The Psalm of Life is a trumpet-call. A music breathes from Resignation in which the clod on the coffin-lid ceases to be heard and dies out of the ear at last with peace."] EARLY IMPRESSIONS “OUT of my childhood,” wrote Mr. Longfellow, in later years, "rises in my memory the recollection of many things rather as poetic impressions than as prosaic facts. Such are the damp mornings of early spring, with the loud crowing of cocks and the cooing of pigeons on roofs of barns. Very distinct in connection with these are the indefinite longings incident to childhood; feelings of wonder and loneliness which I could not interpret and scarcely take cognisance of. But they have remained in my mind." ASPIRES AFTER EMINENCE IN LITERATURE [TO HIS FATHER] December 5, 1824. [In his eighteenth year] I take this early opportunity to write to you, because I wish to know fully your inclination with regard to the profession I am to pursue when I leave college. For my part, I have already hinted to you what would best please me. I want to spend one year at Cambridge for the purpose of reading history, and of becoming familiar with the best authors in polite literature; whilst at the same time I can be acquiring a knowledge of the Italian language, without an acquaintance with which I shall be shut out from one of the most beautiful departments of letters. The French I mean to understand pretty thoroughly before I leave college. After leaving Cambridge I would attach myself to some literary periodical publication, by which I could maintain myself and still enjoy the advantages of reading. Now, I do not think that there is anything visionary or chimerical in my plan thus far. The fact is — and I will not disguise it in the least, for I ought not I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature; my whole soul burns most ardently for it, and every earthly thought centres in it. There may be something visionary in this, but I flatter myself that I have prudence enough to keep my enthusiasm from defeating its own object by too great haste. Surely, there never was a better opportunity offered for the exertion of literary talent in our own country than is now offered. To be sure, most of our literary men thus far have not been professedly so, until they have studied and entered the practice of Theology, Law, or Medicine. But this is evidently lost time. I do believe that we ought to pay more attention to the opinion of philosophers, that "nothing but Nature can qualify a man for knowledge." Whether Nature has given me any capacity for knowledge or not, she has at any rate given me a very strong predilection for literary pursuits, and I am almost confident in believing, that, if I can ever rise in the world, it must be |