page_title: The Courtship of Miles Standish
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: The Courtship of Miles Standish / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: courtshipofmile00long (find matches) Title: The courtship of Miles Standish Year: 1903 (1900s) Authors: Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882 Christy, Howard Chandler, 1873-1952, ill Subjects: Standish, Myles, 1584?-1656 Publisher: Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill Contributing Library: The Library of Congress Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: and spake out, forgetful perhaps of decorum?Certainly you can forgive me for speaking so frankly, for sayingWhat I ought not to have said, yet now I can never unsay it;For there are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion,That if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebbleDrops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret,Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.Yesterday I was shocked, when I heard you speak of Miles Standish,Praising his virtues, transforming his very defects into virtues,Praising his courage and strength, and even his fighting in Flanders,As if by fighting alone you could win the heart of a woman,Quite overlooking yourself and the rest, in exalting your hero.Therefore I spake as I did, by an irresistible impulse.You will forgive me, I hope, for the sake of the friendship between us,Which is too true and too sacred to be so easily broken!Thereupon answered John Alden, the scholar, the friend of Miles Standish 102 Text Appearing After Image: ■&gt; PRISC ILLA I was not angry with you, with myself alone I was angry,Seeing how badly I managed the matter I had in my keeping. No! interrupted the maiden, with answer prompt and decisive; No; you were angry with me for speaking so frankly and freely.It was wrong, I acknowledge; for it is the fate of a womanLong to be patient and silent, to wait like a ghost that is speechless,Till some questioning voice dissolves the spell of its silence.Hence is the inner life of so many suffering womenSunless and silent and deep, like subterranean riversRunning through caverns of darkness, unheard, unseen, and unfruitful.Chafing their channels of stone, with endless and profitless murmurs.Thereupon answered John Alden, the young man, the lover of women: Heaven forbid it, Priscilla; and truly they seem to me alwaysMore like the beautiful rivers that watered the Garden of Eden,More like the river Euphrates, through deserts of Havilah flowing,Filling the land with delight, and memories sweet of Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: The Courtship of Miles Standish is an 1858 narrative poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about the early days of Plymouth Colony, the colonial settlement established in America by the Mayflower Pilgrims.
context_section_description: The Courtship of Miles Standish is set in the year 1621 against the backdrop of a fierce Indian war and focuses on a love triangle among three Mayflower passengers: Miles Standish, Priscilla Mullins, and John Alden. Longfellow said that the story was true, but the historical evidence is inconclusive.
  The poem was a literary counterpoint to Longfellow's earlier Evangeline (1847), the tragic tale of a woman whose lover disappears during the deportation of the Acadian people in 1755. Together, Evangeline and The Courtship of Miles Standish captured the bittersweet quality of America's colonial era. However, the plot of The Courtship of Miles Standish deliberately varies in emotional tone, unlike the steady tragedy of Longfellow's Evangeline. The Pilgrims grimly battle against disease and Indians, but are also obsessed with an eccentric love triangle, creating a curious mix of drama and comedy.  Bumbling, feuding roommates Miles Standish and John Alden vie for the affections of the beautiful Priscilla Mullins, who slyly tweaks the noses of her undiplomatic suitors.  The independent-minded woman utters the famous retort, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" The saga has a surprise ending, one full of optimism for the American future.
caption: Priscilla Mullins, illustration from a 1903 printing
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