Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was a native of Maine and a graduate of Bowdoin College, in the same class with Nathaniel Hawthorne. Longfellow came of early New England ancestry, his mother being a daughter of General Wadsworth of the Revolutionary War. After his graduation from college he spent several years abroad and upon his return to America held professorships first in Bowdoin and later in Harvard College. When he moved to Cambridge and began his active work at Harvard, he took up his residence in the historic Craigie House, overlooking the Charles River-a house in which Washington had been quartered for some months when he came to Cambridge in 1775 to take command of the Continental army. He is the poet who has spoken most sincerely and sympathetically to the hearts of the common people and to children. His style is notable for its simplicity and grace. His Hiawatha is a national poem that records the picturesque traditions of the American Indian. Its charm and melody are the delight of all children, and in years to come, when the race which it describes has utterly disappeared, we shall value at even higher worth these stories of the romantic past of America and of the brave people who inhabited these mountains and plains before the white man came. Besides Indian stories, Longfellow wrote many narratives in verse dealing with old legends of America. "The Skeleton in Armor" is an example of the legends about European explorers who came here before the days of Columbus. Evangeline and The Courtship of Miles Standish are longer poems which find their subjects in early colonial history. He wrote also of legends of Europe, and was well acquainted with stories and romances of older civilizations than ours. Equally well known poems, of a different type, are those in which household joys and sorrows give the theme. Longfellow is the poet of the home-life, of simple hopes, of true religious faith. His spirit was the spirit of a child, affectionate, loyal, eager for romance and knightly adventure. He is the "Children's Poet," as the poem "The Children's Hour" helps to show. There were sorrows as well as joys in his life, and this is why we go to him in trouble and why so many people know his poems by heart. Sorrow never took away his faith or made him bitter. He is genial and kindly, the friend of all Americans everywhere. 5 THE ARROW AND THE SONG I shot an arrow into the air; I breathed a song into the air; Long, long afterwards, in an oak NOTES AND QUESTIONS Discussion. 1. What became of the arrow? Of the song? 2. Where was the arrow found? When? 3. Where was the song found? 4. Point out lines that rime. 5. What is Longfellow's purpose in this poem? 6. Why is the poet's song compared to the flight of an arrow? 7. A poet once said, "Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes the laws." What did he mean? 8. What was the song doing "in the heart of a friend"? Phrases for Study breathed a song, 322, 5 flight of song, 322, 8 5 10 THE CHILDREN'S HOUR Between the dark and the daylight, When the night is beginning to lower, I hear in the chamber above me The patter of little feet, The sound of a door that is opened, From my study I see in the lamplight, 5 10 15 A whisper, and then a silence; Yet I know by their merry eyes They are plotting and planning together A sudden rush from the stairway, They climb up into my turret O'er the arms and back of my chair; They almost devour me with kisses; 20 Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti, Such an old mustache as I am Is not a match for you all? I have you fast in my fortress, But put you down into the dungeon And there will I keep you forever, Yes, forever and a day, Till the walls shall crumble to ruin, NOTES AND QUESTIONS Discussion. 1. What is the time "Between the dark and the daylight" usually called? 2. What do you suppose Longfellow had been doing in his study before the children came down to him? 3. What reasons can you give for the "pause in the day's occupations"? 4. Who were the children whom the poet saw "Descending the broad hall stair" to enter the poet's "castle"? 5. What were these children whispering about? 6. What does Longfellow mean by his "turret"? 7. To what does he compare the rush made by the children? 8. What wall did they scale in order to reach him? 9. Where does Longfellow say he will put the children now that he has captured them? 10. Which stanza of this poem do you like best? 11. Tell what you know about the life of Longfellow. 12. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: raid; match. 13. Pronounce: lower; banditti; dungeon. Phrases for Study Bishop of Bingen, 324, 15 round-tower of my heart, 324, 24 |