The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-10-01
To set his image as upon throne
And speak the praise of him as best she may.

Anu SPEAK the praise VI MIN ds DeSt sue may.
Ali while the city utters benisons
Upon the Poet honored by acclaim
OF all the nations-let her dream, this once,
Hers only him whose likeness stands in bronze,
Memorial of her love and of his fame.
In mid place between the sunrise sea
And where the sunset in the lakewood caught
Among the netted boughs of tree and tree,
Cleans, as in days when to futurity
The beckonng branches led his long, long
thought.
Here was his earliest home; and homes are here
More honorable and happy for his sake
whose household songs made household cares
more dear,
Ana the plain hearth an altar-stone appear.
ana sacred fire amid its brands awake.
Bards there have been who struck the harp of war
And set nation trembling with the strings;
Poets whose passionate fancy flew afar
A rapid fame, as some bright Grant star
Acress the ordered beayens, on tameless wings.
His spirit was no angel armed for strife,
Nor meteor-like-but, messenger Of grace,
Calmly he bore his sweet-toned Tyre of life
Passed through the world with toll and tumult
rife,
And made holy music in the place.
His mind was kin to Beauty; and he sought
Her as sister, in the hemisphere
Where marvellous works reveal the centuries
thought;
He gathered treasure, and the best he brought
To build, that Beauty might inhahit here.
If now the stem of Art some LEAKAGE shows.
While Fancy's bird sings from the dancing spray
To charm us; and If, like wayside r)se,
Poetry blooms along the path of prose
And drifts its petals on the common clay
For this we owe first thanks to him whose hand
Transplanted TO the newer soil these flowers,
Bearing away from many foreign land
Rose-leaf and rose and bud on the green wand,
For the adornment and the joy of ours.
Nay, he was not alone citizen
OF this our sea-girt town that gave him birth,
Nor OF his later home-wherever men
Know his pure heart and his poetic pen,
place is his by more than right of earth
And there amid the mighty who abide
Within Westminster Abbey-they who sleep,
Strong lords of song and sword laid side by side
Beneath the marbles raised to power and pride
Our Poets efiigy Fame doth well to keep.
Yet, if his spirit sees it, not less dear
1t may be to him that in his own town
his image stands, while we with love revere
The gentle and majestic presence here
That on the oak-wood's leafy dome looks down.
The speakers held the closest attention of
the gathering around the statue. After the
reading of Mrs. Cavazza's poem, the singing
OF the Doxology, the band playing the ac-
compartment, ended the exercises.
LETTERS OF REGRET.
Tatfarc of raorof xxrara raoa;.,od f.on. Droe
ident Eliot, Of Harvard, Edward E. Hale
George William Curtis, e. G. Stedman, T. w
Higginson, Geo. W. Cable, Ernest W. Long
fellow. t. B. Aldrich. George Bancroft,
Samuel L. Clemens and others.
George William Curtis writes as follows:
have just received your kind invitation to the
ceremony Of unyeiling the statue of Longfellow,
and regret exceedingly that am unable to ac-
cept IL. No words that may be spoken can over
praise the tender beauty Of his song, the simple
life Porsnd S NAV veil nsy ana as putty s Oh MS
Gus son and illustrate in the memorial she raises
the qualities which she holds TO be worthy of per-
petual reverence.
I. w. Higginson wrote as follows:
l regret very much my inability to be present at
the unwilling OF the statue Of Longfellow. 1t is
emlnently appropriate that 1t should be placed in
the city which gave him birth and which ne loved
so much.
George Bancroft wrote:
l share all your admiration and pride 10 Long
fellows character as poet and as a man; but on
account OF my age dare not promise to be with
you ON the day which you set apart to comment
crate his genius and his virtues.
T. B. Aldrich wrote:
have just returned from abroad after a three
months absence, and at present i find it impos-
si1le TO leave home even for a day. am greatly
Obliged TO you fer your kind invitation. Some
Time shall make pilgrimage TO Portland for no
other purpose than to See the statue of her below
ed poet.