The Portland daily press., 1882-03-28
LONGFELLOW.
More About the Great Poet.
His Personal Virtues.
1Snrin0feid RenubiicanT

LSptlpsneld Repub lean
The personal virtues of Mr.. Longfellow were
great and lovely. He attracted and inspired
young men; he was true TO his friends and his
convictions without violence or contention, and
he lived from day to day in the most open aud
admirable manner. If poets before his exam
pie were held to be unsteady, capricious, sens
al, now seryile and now bold in their relation
to society, LongfeloW's life would have broken
up the tradition and justified the way of gem
ius to man. He had definite task to perform
and he did it, and did it, too, in the best man
ner. 1t was irksome to many that he should
be SO successful in career which was closed
against them; but he succeeded by being more
than they, not less,-and such was the kindli-
ness that nobody could feel any ilI-will. He
smoothed the path for others By the very quail
tiles for which he was sometimes reprosehed
even by those whom he seryed. His estimate
Of literature was high one, but still loftler
was his sense of moral duty and of human
brotherhood. He made no pretentions and
seldom aimed higher than he could shoot. It
could be said of him with a modification Of
Pope's old coupet which he wrote about him
self,-
That though 10 Fancy maze he wandered long,
He stopped to Truth and moralized his sOng
for he did pick up from the by-ways and OBJ
scure places the plebian truth that he wished
to adorn with the flowers of his fancy. He was
the poet of the common rather than OF the com
monplace, yet he was too wise to disregard
theme or manner Of treating it, becaus5 eth
er was trite.
His topics sometimes came to him in strange
ways. There was an odd intimate OF his class
mate-Hawthorne,-one Of those strange fish
which Salem used to find market for-Who
happened upon the story of the Acadian peas
ants and offered it to Hawthorne as a subject
for one OF his ronances. He could do nothing
with 1t and and passed 1t along to the Cam
bridge poet, with whom he dined soon after,
taking his Salem c0nfreFe with him, and from
the conversation at that dinner-table in 1910,
or thereabouts is said to have grown the beau
tiful legend of "EYangehne"-ihe pearl among
LoDgfellow's poems. Yet, in its metrieal form,
"Eyangeline" was faulty, so that it had to
make its way by the sheer force Of its intrinsic
beauty and wealth.
Profound as viii bo the regret felt for Long
fellows death in all circles oil society, the most
touching manifestations of public sorrow come
from the persons who are the least critical and
whose knowledge OF the poet was that which
they have of the bird singing before their win
dows, or the unknown friend who has bright
ened their daily life with thought of beauty.
A scholar who had been indebted TO Longfs!-
low for friendly furtherance and instruction ia
German literature was thinking of his death as
he rode in sight Of Mt Auburn in the train. A
boy taking tho seat beside him, said: "Did you
hear that the poet Longfellow's dead? too bad,
isn't it?'' "Yes, did you read his poetry?" "Oh,
/ read some of it,-and l like best about the
chair,-the children you know,"-eyidently
having in mind "The Children's Hour"
There were million school-children in Amer
lea Saturday morning who made in their hearts
the same childish lament, no doubt and 1t is
by such that the dead poet would have chosen
to be remembered
The First Mrs. Longfellow.
IN. Y. Evening Postl
Mrs Longfellow died during his second Sc
journ in Europe. at Rotterdam, November %,
1885. How profound was the impression pro-
duced upon him is evident from the Footsteps
of Angels" and from the allEsions in the early
part of Hyperion" Mrs Longfellow was, by
the testimony of all who knew her, person Of
rare loveliness OF person and mind. Her
maiden name was Mary Storer Potter she be-
(Storer) Potter of Portland. Her father was
Judge of probate and man of strong charac-
ter, holding very decided views as to education.
Although himself an old-fashioned classical
scholar, he believed the study of Greek and
Latin to be unsuitable for girls; all else was
open to them-zodern languages literature,
and mathematics. For all these, especially the
last, his daughter Mary had strong taste; her
notebooks, preserved by her family, gave, for
instance, ample and accurate reports, recorded
nomical lectures; and she learned to calculate
eclipses, which must have been quite beyond
the average attainmentS of young girls OF her
day. She was several years pupil at the ex-
celept school of Miss Gushing, at bingham; and
all her school papers, abstracts, and compost
tions show thoughtful and well-trained mind.
Some exhibit metaphysical turn, others are
girlIsh stRdies in history and geography, bat
the love of literature is visible everywhere, In
copious extracts from the fayorite authors OF
ho+ 1ax IrC ane
Bernard Barton and even Coleridge and
Shelley. Further on in the series of notebooks
the handwriting becomes firmer and maturer,
and notes and translatiops appear upon tho
pages in the unnlistakabe AUTOGRAPH OF Long
fellow, almost precisely the same at "a as at "a.
Strange that while all else in and around US
changes, this trivial accident called our hand
writing, should SO often be the one permanent
and unalterable trait!
The Poets Finest Sonnet.
AS fond mother, when the day is DER,
Leads BY the hand her little child to bed,
Half willing, half reluctant to be led,
And leaves his broken playthings on the floor.
Still gazing at them through the open door,
Nor wholly reassured and comforted
BY promises of others in their stead,
Which,. though more splendid, may net please
him more;
SO neture deals with us, and takes away
Our playthings one by one, and by the hand
Leads us to rest so gently that we go
scarce knowing if we wish TO go or stay,
Being too full of sleep to understand
How far the unknown transcends the what We
know.
Mary Ashburton
New York Evening Postl
Before leaving Europe in 1889 he had met, IN
very much the manner described in "Hyper-
ion," the lady who was destined to be his sec
and wife, thea Miss Fanny Appleton dpughter
OF the late Nathan Appleton of Boston, and
sister of Thomas Gold Appleton, well-known
author and art critic of that city. Those of US
who can recall the second Mrs. Lonefellow will
never forget her distinguished and noble pres
ence or the rare beauty of "those deep, unut-
terable eyes" the poet sang. 1t is known that
his suit was not at first acceptable to her, and
that she was not entirely gratified at being the
recognized theme of romance SO highly
wrought. There certainly was some RELUCTANT
delay about the matter, as the romance was
published in 1880, and it was not till July, 1S43,
that the second~ marriage of Mr.. Longfellow
took place. 1t was to him the source of the
most unmingled happiness for many years,
ending at last in tragedy as intense and con-
centrated as ever poet dreamed. On July Q,
1861, his idolzed wife was burned TO death in
his very presence, by her clothes taking fire,
in spite of all efforts to extinguish the fiamss.
The shock to Mr.. Longfellow was so great thAp
or a time il seemed as if reason itself was in
danger; and though he came gradually back to
his accustomed life and pursuits, he seemed
tbenceforward an old man. Yet he turned
again to his work. and there was hardly an