The Portland daily press., 1882-03-27
LoNGFELLow.
"Dust Thou Art, to Dust Return
eth"
LAST SAD RITES PERFORMED YES
TERDAY.
The Remains Laid in Mount Auburn.

Inc chapel, winch Will hold nearly thousand,
was packed, and in the audience were very
many prominent people. The exercises opened
by singing 30 Cast Thy Burden" after which
Rev. Francis G. Peabody offered prayer and
read selections from the Scriptures. Rev. Prof
G. @. Everett then delivered an address. He
said
In this service of sympathy and reverent
sorrow, it is a moving and inspiring thought
that the feelings which drew us here are shared
by multitudes wherever the English tongue is
spoken. Many share them to whom the songs
of our poet are known only in what is to them
foreign speech. 1t shows our civilization in
one of its most interesting aspects,-that feel
ings SO profound and SO pure should permeate
such large portion of the world to-day. Here
is no dazzling position; here is no startling Cir
cumstance. A simple life has uttered itself
in song. Men listened, rejoiced and loved,
and now they mourn. Yet for us there is a
deeper sorrow. While others mourn the poet
who is gone we mourn the man who was our
townsman, who was our neighbor, who was our
friend. We knew the simple beauty of his
life, we knew its truth, its kindness, its help
fulness, its strength. We could not indeed
separate from our thought the knowledge of his
fame and of his genius We saw him brave
the honors of the world more easily than the
triumphs OF our ordinary life. Thus we knew
and loved him and thus sorrow for him.
But this difference of which speak is after all
one OF degree. He poured himself into his
songs, and wherever they went he was found
with them, and in these others found the beauty
of that spirit which was revealed to us in nearer
presence. Thus he drew very near to our
hearts. Thus many who never looked upon his
face feel today that they too have lost friend.
You remember how sweetly and gracefully he
greets these unseen and unknown friends in
the dedication of one of his books He feels
their presence though he sees them not; he en-
ters their very households. Sure of welcome
thus he erie II hope as no unwelcome guest at
the warm freside the lamps are lighted, my
place shall be reserved among the rest" The
kindly request was needed; he found place in
many Households which ne had never seen,
and now by many freside it is almost as
though there was one more vacant chair
have said he poured his life into his work.
1t is shown in all the phases of life and expert
ence which forms SO large portion of his poe
try, which many sing. They sing nothing else.
He was content to utter in prose, if prose we
must call the language of his romances he
seems content to have scattered abroad the
flowers of romantic lore at the door of the
tempter Of his song. There is something
strange, too, in the fascination which the
thought of death has for so many generous
youth.
You remember that Bryant first won fame by
hymn to death, and SO 1 think the first fame
of Longfellow which won recogn tion for him
was that translation OF those sounding Spanish
lines which exalt the majesty of death, and
sang the shortnesf of human life. But the first
song of his own which won the recognition of the
world was not song of death; it was psalm
of life. That little volume, s"The Voices of
Night, formed an epoch in our literary history.
1t breathed his whole spirit, his energy, his
courage, his tenderness, his faith. 1t formed
the prelude of all which should come after;
and after this we find his whole life imaged in
his verse. l do not mean that he tore open
the heart of the home but all is there trans
figured, enlarged, made universal, made the
common property of all. We wander with
him through foreign lands. He takes us with
him into his studies. In his TRANSACTIONS he
gives us their fairest fruits. We hear with him
the greeting of the new born child; we are
taken into the sacred joy of home, the merry
notes of the childrens' home ring upon our ears
we feel the pains of sorrow and of loss, we
hear the prayer of elevated trust; and when
age draws near at last, when the shadows be-
gin to fall, then we share with him the
solemnity and sublimity of the gathering dark
ness. The life which is thus imaged in these
songs was one that was fitted for such things
| think we may look at it as one of the most
rounded lives that ever has been lived upon
earth, so that we can say there seems little that
was lacking TO its perfect completeness. do
not mean there was no sorrow in it. What life
can be made perfect without it? What poets
life can be made complete without an expert
ence of suffering? But from the very first his
life flowed on its calm and even way. His first
songs received the applause of the world and
the sympathy of men moved with him as he
moved forward in his work. Travel in foreign
lands enlarged his sympathies and added
picturesqueness to his poems which they other
wise might have lacked. The literature of all
ages and nations was open to him and he drew
from all it is said. know that thus he repre-
sents the culture of the poet and of foreign
lands; that he is not our poet, not American,
but what is the genius of our country? What
is American? Is it not the very genius of all
nations bringing together elements from far
off lands and fusing them into one and making
a new type of man? The American poet should
represent the genius of all lands; he must have
no provincial muse. He must sing of the forest
and of the sea, but not of these alone; he mus be
"heir of all the joys" he must be representa-
tive of all the culture of all time; he must abb
sorb all things into himself and stand free,
strong and able-a man as simple as though he
had never strayed beyond his native woods. He
must in other words be like our Longfellow.
When what we may call his preparation was
completed his life flowed on its course gather
ing only greater and calmer feelings as it
flowed His old age was as beautiful as his
manhood and youth "MOriturt ,Sdlutdnaus,'
that marvellous poem, is perhaps the grandest
hymn TO age that was ever written. 1t is no
distant dream as it was when those sounding
Spanish lines fell from his per. He feels its
shadows; he feels that the end is drawing
near. But there he stands strong and calm
with sublime faith as at first and greets the
present as he greeted the past He gathers
from the coming of age, from approaching
night, not signal for rest but new summons
to activity He cries SIS it too late?" No.
nothing is too late till the tired heart shall
cease to palpitate, and SO he takes up his glad
work again; and think more of his sweetest
and deepest songs date from this latest period,
such as that graceful poem to TenDySon, that
chevalrous greeting from one son of song to
another. In that tender message that he sent
TO Lowell across the seas in "Elmwood
Herons'' there comes in little playfulness
Of which there is not much in his earlier songs
His was calm, loving age full of activity,
confidence and peace. He writes upon his
latest volume those words that mark the end
of his career and his labors are at an end The
Ultima Thule" has been reached. The
worlds love gathered about him as he lived
and its homage was breathed into his ear. On
his last birthday there was paid to him an
ovation given to few living. From the home
of his youth in Maine came greetings:
chidren's voices, those which were ever most
welcome to his ear, joined in their acclaim.
Thus the story of his life was completed; his
last book had been written and marked by
him as his last; the final greeting of the world
had been uttered by him and he passed away.
He passed awayp' / think we have not yet
learned the meaning OF those words. l think
we do not quite feel them. We still half think
" may meet him in his familiar haunts. Does
not this protest of the heart contain a truth :?
His spirit as we trust has been called to higher
service, yet he had giuen himself unto the
world. He had breathed himself into his
songs, and in them he is with us still. Wher-
ever they 60 as they wander through the world,
he will be with Them. minister of love; he
will be by the side of the youth pointing to
heights as yet uncealed, bidding him have
faith and courage. He will be with che an
derer in foreign lands, making the beauty that
he sees more fair. He will be with the mariner
on the seas. He will be in the quiet beauty of
home. He will be by the side of the sorrowing
heart, pointing to a higher faith. When old
age is gathering about the human soul he will
be there to inspire courage, still to cry, "yet
there is opportunity, no less than in youth it.
self" Thus will he inspire in all faith and
courage, and point all to those two sources of
strength that never fail: Heart within and
God o'erhead."
At the close of Prot Everett's address "for
ever blessed" was rendered by the Harvard
Glee Club and the audience was dismissed
while the organ played the "Dead March in
Saul" The remains were inferred at Mount
Auburn cemetery in the family vault.
TOKENS OF GRIEF