The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-01 00:00:00

.~

L I
By Henry Wadsworth
The Song of _Hiawatha.—
Longfellow. David Bogue.
Opening this new poem by Professor Longfellow
with eager expectation, we have closed it with the
bitterest disappointment. Yet there will probably
be those among the more infatuated admirers of
our author's genius—such are the diversities, or, as
we should rather call them, the perversities of taste
and judgment—who may regard " The Song of
Hiawatha" with wondering admiration. As there
have been astounding individuals who,to say the least
of it, have affected delight with the " Casa Guidi
Windows" of Mrs. Browning, and the " Egeria" of
Dr. Mackay, and the "Maud" of Mr. Tennyson,
and the "Christmas Eve and Easter Day" of the
author of " Paracelsus." When everybody else
endowed with a particle of discernment has viewed
these later offshoots of " Apolles laurel bough"
with regrets both poignant and unaffected—sigh-
ing for the days when, in lieu of such mystical
twaddle and didactic dullness, their senses were
gladdened with the music of some tender love-
chaunt from " Katarina to Camoens," or of some
resounding " Voice from the Crowd," or of some
lovely glimpse of the green shwa of "Sumner
Chase," or of some trilling, thrilling, dainty, deli-
cious snatch of melody from the delectable see
of " Pippa Passes." Woe is me the times are gone
by when we could listen to such songs as these from
the lips of our contemporary poets. Instead of
which we are doomed to hearken to bedlamite
caterwaulings, such as provoked from the humo-
rous indignation of the bard of the Scottish Cava-
liers the incomparable spasmodic satire of " Fir-
millian." And the contagion has floated alas lit
seems all the way across the broad Atlantic, in-
fecting even the vigorous and masculine intellect
of our hitherto lucid and delightful Longfellow.
The incoherent, and as it seemed to us here and
there profane, if not actually blasphemous, mystery
of " The Golden Legend," constituted the first
notes of discord from that noble and majestic organ
—the poetic genius from which had previously
emanated the animating intonations of " The
Psalm of Life," and the hexameters of " Evange-
line." And now follows a harsher discord still in
this prolonged and discordant howl of " The Song
of Hiawatha." A song written from first to last
in octo-syllabic verse without rhyme—or rea-
son 1 The dreariest example of a wholly in-
tolerable monotony 1 Altogether the scene opened
up to the reader's view by Professor Longfellow,
through the lattice of his new poem, instead of
being some verdant depth of a " forest primeval,"
with " the murmuring pines and the hemlocks,"
or some breezy mountain crag, high up among the
clouds echoing back the clarion-cry of " Excelsior"
—is, so to speak, after all, little better than a
grey, level flat, or, as the Poet Laureate has it in
that one dismal verso—

RE.

" A level waste, a rounding grey."
Such to us literally is the aptist symbol of " The
Song of Hiawatha." The catalogue of Homer's
ships was as nothing to the list of jaw-breaking
tribes celebrated hero and there in this strangely
uninteresting production by Professor Longfellow.
Listen to him, for example, as he sjngs almost at
the commencement his Red Indian Epic of Hia-
watha—

"Down the rivers, o'er the prairies,
Came the warriors of the nations,
Came the Delawares and Mohawks,
Came the Choctaws and Camanches,
Came the Shoshonies and Blackfeet,
Came the Pawnees and Omawbaws,
Came the Mandans and Dacotabs,
Came the Hurons and Ojib ways "
Whew ! enough in all conscience—we break off in
sheer exhaustion. However, let us try again—
" nothing venture nothing have "—a little further
on by way of quotation : the poet is chanting the
glories of the " fat and lazy" Shawondasee—
" He it was who sent the wood-birds,
Sent the Opechee, the robin,
Sent the blue-bird, the 0 waissa,
Sent the Shawshaw, sent the swallow,
Sent the wild-goose, Wawa, northward,
Sent the melons and tobacco,
And the grapes in purple clusters "
Whew ! again we draw breath and pause in our
transcription, following the hero a little later on,
when—

"Forth into the forest straightway
All alone walked Hiawatha
Proudly, with his bow and arrows ;
And the birds sang round him, o'er him,
Do not shoot us, Hiawatha Hiawatha!'
Sang the Opechee, the robin,
Sang the blue-bird, the 0 waissa,
`Do not shoot us, Hiawatha !'
Up the oak-tree, close beside him,
Sprang tho squirrel, Adjidaumo,
In and out among the branches,
Coughed and chattered from the oak-tree,
Laughed, and said between his laughing,
not shoot me, Hiawatha !'
And the rabbit from his pathway
Leaped aside, and at a distance
Sat erect upon his haunches,
Hal in fear and half in frolic,
Saying to the little hunter,
' Do not shoot ine, Hiawatha!'
And so forth, and so forth—ever and ever—in
(we must fairly and bluntly out with it at once)—
" damnable iteration ! " The poem throughout
is one long series of repetitions, odiously dull and
drearily monotonous. Here they are taken by
chance from any single page we may open the book
at by way 'of apt, though purely accidental, illus-
tration. Say page sixteen :
" Could not bear the heat and laughter,
Could not bew• the merry singing.

Stamped upon the crusted snow drifts,
Stamped upon the lakes and rivers.

Made the snow upon them harder,
Made the ice upon them thicker.

To come forth and wrestle with him,
To come forth, and 'wrestle naked.

IVrcstled all night with tir.3 north wind,
14'restlel naked on the moorlands.

Till his fainting breath grew fainter,
Till his frozen grasp grew duller.

To the kingdom of \Vabasso,
To the land ,)f the White Rabbit,
Hearing gill the gusty laughter,
Bearing Shingobis, the diver.

In the drowsy dreamy sunshine,
In the never-ending tuinmer."
All at page sixteen—iterations,' repetitions, "plen-
tiful as blackberries." Opening this book again
haphazard, at page eighty, we find—
" Little heeded he their jesting,
Little cared he for their insultq.

On his heal were plumes of swan's down,
On his heel were fails of foxes.

To the sound of flutes and singing,
To the sound of drums and voices."
Surely sufficient ! More than sufficient. The
monotone which seems, as it were, to be the veri-
table key-note of the poem, becomes wearisome be-
fore many pages have been turned-0, so w. earl-
some ! We throw the book aside at last, sick to
the very heart of Wawa the wild goose, and Shu-
shu-gah the blue heron, of Mushkodasa the grouse,gied
and Chetowaik the plover,. of Kwasind and Pau-
puk-keewis, of Mudjekuwis and eke of He
is
search
of relief after so lamentable and
unexpected ax a,
or isuoi nn -a,
fliction—sorrou:ful that a man so eminently gifted
with
highs andlel
with poetic genius as Professor Longfellowh
should,
ofs
b Hiawatha,"y the issue of
so such cdhe
pal productionorabl
y damagea this
honourable reputation.

VACANCIES, APPOINTMENTS, AND PROMOTIONS IN THE
CIVIL SERVICE.—Home Department—The office of Resi-
dent Sub-Inspector for Ireland is vacant by the death of
Mr. J. P. Hudson. War Department—Mr. Seymour
Thellusson has been appointed Private Secretary to Col.
Mundy. Mr. Wm. de Burgh has been appointed Private
Secretary to Mr. F. Peel. Ordnance Medical Depart-
ment—Senior Surgeon Alexander Ogilvie, M.D., has
been appointed Deputy-Inspector-General of Hospitals.
British Museum—A vacancy has been created in the
office of Keeper in the Department of Printed Books,
by the death of Mr. Leopold James Lardner. Coast
Guard—lnspecting Lieutenant John Coleman (a) has
been removed from Stranraer, N. 8., to command the
Strangford district, vice R. Wilcox, previously remo_v
roedu;
Chief Officer Thos. C. Hodgson has been removed
tiren,
Kingsdown to Walton Gap, vice Lieut. J. t
ng lieu-
removed. Commander W. C. Forsyth has beenc:Sot
inspecting Commander. The office of
.!FsPeegg,
b county
tenant of the Ccast Guard Station, li
Ki
1 Chas. Blyth.
Donegal, is vacant by the death of Lie
i a clerk in
Customs—Mr. T. Delany has been appointed
•nondon. Mr. R.
preointed
the Imports and Exports Office in iin then Office
Keane has been appointed a
E Wastall has been appoints
the London Docks. Mr. ix; London. Mr. C. 11. Wood-
in London. Mt J. Laffan hicol_ebsen appnted a clerk in
a clerk in the Long Roomalerk in the Comptroller Gene-
ley, has been appointed
o' civics IN THE EAST.—Mr. G. Craig,
Civil Service Gazette.
Land Transport Corps, and
Cl kH. Rivaz, have joined the staff
rays Office fficcieviinr, London.—
Tempo-
rary Coln mi _
~v ,Deputy Assistant Commissary-General J.
of the ar—J. obtained the
acting rank of Assistant
Woodley, has
Chief Accountant,
NV.
• ry-General from Sept. 1. Colour Sergeant G.
Comtms'a
Royal Sappers and Miners, has been appointed
snstani er
• le
Piing '
Deputy Assistant Commissary of Engineers' stores, vice
Nicholls, deceased. M. J. M'Kettrick, Ordnance Clerk,
has joined the staff of the army. Deputy Inspector
General of Hospitals Alexander M'Gregor died at Scu-
tari of cholera on the 16th of Nov. Acting Assistant
Surgeon Wood died of cholera on the lith, and Dispen-
ser ser Beveridge died of cholera on the same day.--Q"
Service Gazette.