Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-04-01
LONGFELLOW AND HIS POETRY.
The Origin of Some of his Poems

/
The late James L. Fields, writing
about the late Henry W. Longfellow
said
"You must look to Shakespeare for {
larger stock of the currency of though
then Longfellow's, for he is quoted il
| Parliament and in all the pulpits Of
England. It is because he humanizes
whatever he touches that his Tyre has
nothing alien to any soil. I have heard
him quoted by an Armenian monk with
cowl, and sung at camp-meetings on
the hills of New-Hampshire.
Gas happen to know of the birth o.
many of Longfeilow's poems, let me
divulge to you few of their secrets
The Psalm of Life came into exist
ence on a bright summer morning, il
July, 1888, in Cambride, as the poet sal
between two windows, at a small table in
the corner of his chamber. 1t was 9
verse from his Utmost heart, and he
kept it unpublished for long time. II
expressed his own feeling at the time,
when recovering from a deep affiic-
ton, and he had it in his own
heart for many months. The poem
OF The Reaper, Death, came without
effort, craystallized into his mind. THE
Light of TIE Stars was composed on a
serene and beautiful summer evening,
exactly suggestive OF the poem. The
Wreck of the Hesperus' was written
the night after violent storm had oc-
CURED, and as the poet sat smoking his
pipe the Hesperus came sailing into his
mind. He went to bed, but could not
sleep, aud wrote the celebrated verses.
It hardly caused him an effort, but
flowed ON without let or hindrance. On
a summer afternoon in 1S49, as he was
riding on the beach, The Skeleton in
Armor' rose as out of the deep before
him and would not be laid.
''One of the best known of all of
Longfellow's shorter poems is Excel
sior.' That one wordhappened to catch
his eve one autumn eve in 1871, on
torn piece of newspaper, and straight
way his Imagination took fire at it.
Taking up piece OF paper, which
happened to be the back of letter re-
ceived that day from Charles Sumner,
he crowded it with verses. As first
written down Excelsior differs from
the perfected and published version, but
it shows rush and glow worthy of its
author. The story of Evangeline' was
first suggested to Hawthorne by a friend
who wished him to found a romance on
it. Hawthorne did not quite coincide
with the idea, and he handed it over to
Longfellow, who saw in it all the ele-
ments of deep and tender idyl."
All his labors were congenial. He
had good health, competence, troops of
friends and the foretaste of universal
fame. His home, the historic head
quarters of General Washington, was
all that a man of taste or warm-hearted
parent and husband could desire. But
to this paradise came one terrible
affection in July, 1861. Mrs. Long
fellow, while seated at the library table
amusing two of her children, accidentally
touched piece of lighted paper with
her dress, which was Immediately IN
flames. Mr.. Longfellow sprang to her
rescue, but she was so badly burned
that she died the next day. The poet
visibly aged under this grievous stroke.
OF this grief Mr.. r. Fl. Stoddard, in
"Poets and Their Homes" writes:
"He has known poignant sorrow.
Death has entered his home and taken
from it his dearest. That this, sorrow
ever abiding, is one from which, in
sense, he will never recover, the years
have proved. His melancholy is but
dimly seen, like q smoke curling upward
from blazing fire. Yet it is present
always, yelling his cheerfulness and sad
dening his smiles"
81 never heard him make but one
allusion to the great grief of his life,
said an intimate friend. eve were
speaking of Schiller's fine poem, THE
Ring of Polycrates.' He said: 1T was
just so with me. l was too happy. l
might fancy the gods envied if l could
fancy heather GODS"
The old Craigie House, which was
Mr.. Longfellow's home in Cambridge,
was rich in associations. 1t was built
midway in the last century by gentle
man of family and distinction, Colonel
John Vassal, whose gravestone in Cam
bridge bears upon it sculptured goblet
and a sun. After the Revolutionary
war the house was sold to one Thomas
Tracy, who appears to have been sort of
American Vathek, .emulating as far
as possible in an ufcongenial cline the
magnificent doings of the Eastern
Prince. With the passing of his wealth,
clouds gathered about The old house.
We hear of it no more until it came
into the hands of the last owner save
one, Andrew Craigie. The expenses it
entailed ruined him. Necessity obliged
him to part with all save eight of the
200 acres originally included in the
estate, and after his death Mrs.
Craigie was forced to let lodg-
ings to the youth of Harvard,
pigmies all to her, though to us
such intellectual giants as Everett, Wor-
cester, Sparks and Longfellow were
among them. OF the reduced gentle
woman some curious stories are told.
On one occasion her young poet lodger,
entering her parlor in the morning,
found her sitting by the open window,
through which innumerable canker-
worms had crawled from the trees they
were devouring outside. They had
fastened themselves to her dress, and
hung in little writhing festoons from
| the white tllrban on her head Her