The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1882-04-12

successive poem or book of the younger
4 poet appeared, il found a ready adnlirel
in him who was already veteran in the
service of the Muse.
The veterans praise will be of far more
worth than anything that an unskilled
critic can offer. Take this, then, written
by Bryant in letter to Longfellow, in
1S46, as the sufficient description OF the
latter's style: g The exquisite music of
your verses dwells more agreaably than
ever in my ear and more than ever am l
| affected by their depth of feeling, and
their spirituality, and the creative power
with which they set before us passages
from the great drama of life.
While not questioning the business OF
this praise, think that neither depth OF
feeling nor creative power constitutes the
strongest point in Longfellow's character
as poet, or at least, is not the most
potent source of his universal popularity.
Tenderness and The inventive faculty
would not have so availed, had Longfellow
been less of an artist--n master of words.
There was native delicacy and fluency, a
gentle nature, and refined taste. There
was the scholarship that supplied ample
materials wherein to work. And there
was perfect acquaintance with the re-
sources and capabilities of language--a
masterful knowledge and skill in the use
of his tools, for which his poetical trans
lation was valuable discipline.
Thoughtful, subdued feeling" per-
vades all his writings, and ''overfows in
quiet beauty" The very absence of in
tense poetic fire, of resistless passion, or
inspiration, saves from the ruggedness,
the intensity, the fierceness of that min
strelsy which takes the heart by storm
and can arouse and inflame tho world.
Here is Muse that glides in with noise
less step, and takes most peaceable
possession of the heart; cnthrones herself
by the royal right of kindness and con
scious good will, and finds quiet, full
welcome, and is permitted to quit that
home 10 the human heart, nevermore.
A critic somewhat coldly says, as to his
method q lie often reminds us of an
excellent Mosaic worker, with his smooth
table of polished marble indented to re-
ceive the precious stones that are lying
at hand, which he calmly, patiently, and
with exquisite art, inserts in the shape OF
flowers and fruit. Almost all Long
fellows poems are gems set with consum-
mate taste.'
Apt illustration but | think most of
my hearers will pronounce it incomplete.
until supplemented by the mention OF
that truthfulness of sentiment, that
earnestness of purpose, that calm, steady
glow of passionless emotion, which made
the spring and motive of action, which
set and kept at his pleasant task
the excellent Mosaic WORKER And
while that " fine madness, and those
brave translunary things that the first
poets had, making "their verses all air
and fire, - | have not accorded to Long
fellow, as one cannot ; yet such an in.
spiration as he claims for the fraternity
Of poets at large, and AYERS to be his own
possession, would cordially allow. Let
MS hear him, in their behalf, and his own.
"GoD sent His singers upon Garth
With songs of sadness and of mirth,
That they might touch the hearts Of men,
And bring them back to heaven again"
And then, in what | believe were some
of his very latest verses, published in his
last little volume, Ultima Thule
As the birds come in the Spring,
We know not from where
As the stars come at evening
From depths ofthe air;
As the rain comes from the cloud
And the brook from the ground
As suddenly low or loud
Out OF silence sound
As the grape comes to the vine,
The fruit 10 the tree
As the wind comes to the pine,
And the tide to the sea;
As come the white sails OF ships
Ger the oceans verge;
As comes the smile to the lips
The foam to the surge;
SO come to the Poet his songs,
All hitherward blown
From the misty realm, that belongs
To the vast Unknown.
His. and not his are the lays
lie sings and their fame
Is his, and not his; and the praise
And the pride oil name.
For voices pursue him by day,
And haunt him by night,
And he listens, and need must obey,
When the angel says: Write.'
In the half hour assigned me, it were
vain to attempt any thorough classical
tion or minute criticism Of the Long
fellow Poems. You will permit me, in
stead, in somewhat unmethodical way,
to make such comments as very hurried
preparation has rendered possible.
There is one of his Poems that is, and
must forever remain unique. In the
worlds future history, there can be no
recurrence of that phase of national or
tribal life preserved in Hia,oatha and no
poet, living or yet Ito be born, will
attempt a reproduction of what has been
so perfectly done already. The legends
the customs, the history and character of
the North American Indians, in their best
estate, are here stored up, nobly
housed and decked, once and for ALL
Should you ask me, whence these stories
Whence these legends and traditions
With the odours of the forest,
With the dew and damp meadows
With the curling smoke of wigwams
With the rushing Of great rivers
With their frequent repetitions,
And their wild reverberatons
As of thunder in the mountains?
| should answer, should tell you
From the forests and the prairies,
From the great lakes of the Northland
From the land OF the Oibways,
From the land of the Dacotabs
From the mountains, moors, and fen lands
Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah
Feeds among the reeds and PUSHES
] repeat rem as ! heard them,
From the lips of Nawaddaha,
The musician, the sweet-sngern
Catlin's Gallery Of painted Portrait,
and Longfellow's Hiawatha, are the two
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