Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-07-28
LONGFELLOW.
The Origin of Some of the Great BarG,'s
P0e91ao

Longfellow at single sitting one bright |
July morning in 1888, as he sat alone
burdened with great sorrow, below
two windows at small table in his
chamber. It was after the death OF hiS
wife, to whom he was devotedly at
tached, and who was burned to death
despite his efforts to save her. The
=" Psalm came to his mind without ap-
parent effort, for his heart was full OF
the subject and of the affection for the
life that had been so much to him and
had gone out.
The fine ballad, "The Wreck of the
Hesperus," was written in 1889. A
storm had devastated the coast all day,
and the winds whistled about his house
as he smoked his pipe by the fire. He
went to bed, but so full of the idea of a
wreck was his mind that he arose and
wrote the celebrated poem. "The
clock was striking g." says Longfellow,
"when I finished the last stanza."
The "Skeleton in Armor," which is
one of his strongest and certainly the
most weird of all his poems, was written
in 1849. A short time before skeleton
had been exhumed at Fall River, and,
being clad in broken and rusty armor,
made deep impression upon the poet.
Near Fall River is Newport, Understands
the old tower, said to have been erected
by the Norsemen about the year 1000.
To connect the two by the ballad was
the poets inspiration. His mind was
full of the wild romance of Scandinavian,
Danish, and German literature, and
some of it was woven into the "Skele-
ton in Armor," which is, so far as grand
eur is concerned, the most noticeable of
all his poems.
The effected Knights " is also Dan
ish in its origin, and Mr.. Longfellow
caught the idea from ballad of that
country. The "Tales of a Wayside
Inn we're inspired by an old
New England tavern with which
the poet was familiar in his youth,
and many of the scenes were real to him.
The "Song of Hiawatha was, per-
haps, the most studied of all his poems,
for he hoped to write an American lyric
that should endure. To portray the
romance of fast-fading race and pay a
tribute to the aborigines of America was
! a fitting theme for the poet The
i legends were mostly taken from School
craft, whose love for adventure and
poetry had brought him into contact
with the Indians, and he had drawn
from them the most romantic pictures
of their life. The songs are strung
together upon the simple thread OF
everyday events into tale of Indian
life, the charm of which is irresistible.
La no poem does the poets wonderful
art in selecting words that both from
their meaning and sound fit them tc
carry the thoughts he intends to convey
appear to better advantage than il
"Hiawatha." He intended that his
fame as poet should rest upon thai
work, and to him it was what the "Idyls
of the King" is to Tennyson.
When Evangeline was written, Mr.
Longfellow had never been in Novs
Scotia, the scene in which the charming
poem is laid. The accounts of the trou
bles of the early settlers in Acadia wer,
related to Hawthorne and Longfellov
by mutual friend, who was anxious
that the former should make them tn,
subject of romance. The legend wa
repeated, and Grand Pre- was minutel,
described. Longfeilow jotted down tn
words as they fell from the narrator
lips, and asked that the subject be givel
to him alone for a poem. The reques
was granted and Evangeline was tn
result. It is simply surprising that s.
graphic and 50 perfect description
could have been given without per
sonal inspection of the region, but tn
poet never saw the spot he so minutel
describes.
. The Hanging of the Crane" is
poem the origin Of which is suggeste
by the lines themselves. It was pub
lished in the New York Ledgcr, MI
Bonner paying 81. 600 for the poem c
, 200 lines.
A great many of his poems, like eth
Bridge" and beware" have been st
to music and have become popula
Longfellow's prose reads like poem
and no one who has not the fl
frenzy" could have written the poetic
prose of Kavanagh." The homel
scenes and events of New England Ii
form the groundwork Of the story, In
which are woven such characters
Alice and Cecile, which are drawn wit
the skill of an artist and the grace Of
poet. The sad death of Lucy and Il
illness and death of Alice are as touch
ing as anything in English literature.