Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1890-10-16
That Revised Version of Longfellow

| Boston that revised version of the poeti'
cal works of Henry Wadsworth Long
fellow will shortly be placed on the market.
His publishers have learned with emotion
that one of his most familiar poems The
Building of the Ship" has proved cause
of offence; that it has been indicted as
calculated to start a Blush on the cheek Of
| Innocence. Now, the members of the firm
| OF Houghton, Mitiiin ( Company are NOT
| only publishers, but moral men. 50 natural
| ly they are anxious to do the square thing
| BY Innocence. The delicate task Of pre-
pairing this revised version has been in
trusted. as is undcrstood.to to an accomplish
ed Brooklyn critic. and Judging from the
advance sheets, he has performed his
| delicate task IN highly Creditahle manner
Wa have not the space to give more than
| few of his feliCitous alterations Of the
| original text. but our selections, we arr
sure, will convince the intelligent read,
| that the revision Will supply whatcvcg
| popular want exists for IT,
/. The Building of the Ship. This poem
as II stands calls the sea the bridegroom of
| the ship. Il also deals with another couple
| composed of seutient beings, to vii a
| young man who is evidently engaged tn
the shipbuilder's daughter, and that young
lady. In the revision the sea is spoken OF
a. the grandfather OF the ship, while the
young lady-who Is going out in the vessel
| on its initial voyage As a missionary to the
Fiji lslands-is represented as being the
elder sister, a good deal frccklcd but very
good, of the young man The shipbuilder
sings:
MY son said he. "wc wiI huild TIL, ship.
| Lay square the block, upon the >ltp.
! And follow well this plan OF minr.
/ Cedar Of Maine and Georgia pine
I Here together shall combine:
kud the DAY that gives her to the SEA
I Your sister and you ,hal ,ail for FIJI"
I The Masters word
/ Euraplured the Young man heard,
| And running home he up and kissed her,
| He kissed his frecked elder sister.
! Like q bcauteous barge was she
| Still at rest on the sandy beach
| This side the place where the pillows grow
roughcr.
| But he
Was rather short Of Kind Of a dui'er.
The ocean old.
Centuries old
With hi. snow-white hair and trembling lip,
Feels ike the grandfather Of the ship;
80 4. fondy oward him it leans and lurChe-
He moves away
And /. heard 10 say:
They're watching u. child. in The City Of
| And . the disaster
! II some >rhoo master
should rise and remark mad as hopper
That our relations were quite improper
2. The Skeleton ie amor. Thi. poem
calls for very little revision. Only one Of
it, verses is to be altered, slightly altered.
| This is the one
wooed the hlue-.yed maid.
Yielding, yet half afraid.
And in the forest shade
our vows were plightcd.
nitr IL. lonstuci vest
Fiuttcred her little breast,
Like birds within their nest
BY the hawk frishtcd.
| In the revised version this will read
/ wooed the blue-eyed maid,
But -he sore afraid,
For in the forest shade
| doomed up lanky.
! q, Ii sweet TO
| L. two beneath a tree,
/ Singing the hymns. ah me.
! or Moody and >ankey.
/ g. Excelsior 1t will he remembered
! that the hero of this poem while on his
way to the uplands receives an invitation
/ from young lady
"Oh stay" the maiden said. land rest
Thy weary head upon this breast"
\ tear stood in his bright blue eye,
/ But still be answered with sigh,
] Excelsior.
The revisor felt that this was not the
sort of a proposition to be addressed to a
Young gentleman distinctively bent upon
the higher If. He also was penetrated
with the conviction that it was calculated
to start Blush on the cheek of Innocence
Hence when he gets through with the
verse it will have this form
80 stay" remarked the maiden coy
And rest thy weary head on the breast Of d
district mes euger boy
Get thee to Brooklyn, cried the lad
Then added-'twas a way he had
Excelsior.
The second line of the above is pretty
long but then, so is Art, as Mr. Long
fellow himself has reminded US. Besides
as the revisor justly holds. what is lost il
rhythm is gained in propriety.
L. Endymion. In the uneXpurgateC
edition this poem is inclusive Of a sensa
tional statement concerning Diana:
On such tranquil night rs this,
She woke Edymion with kiss,
When, sleeping in a grove,
He dreamed not of her love.
Those who have felt that Longfelow need
ed to be taken in hand by a judicious It
visor will be delighted at the transfOrma
ton which this quatrain has undergone:
On such tranquil night she found
Young Endymion sleeping sound
So fearing what might befall him.
She hired man to call him.
1t is not impossible that in the final re
vision the last two lines of the above vii
run:
SO she woke him with many a call
And her prodding parasol.
5. The Courtship of~Miles Standish
Priscilla's searching question addressed t
John Alden,
why don't you speak for yourself, John:
is to be stricken out as in the last degre
unmaidenly, not to say brazen. In IL
place will be put question which has no
vet been decided upon. But it will pro
badly be, Don't you think we're going T.
have an open winter, John? Or, What
the best news up your way, John' Or
Do you happen to know a good cure for
cold, John?
6. The Day is Done. This poem ha
never been accused of starting Blush o.
the cheek of Innocence. No; but the re
visor thought that while he had his han
in it might be well in the interest of
"distinctively American" literature t
alter its last verse a bit
And the night shall be filled with music,
, And the cares that infest the day,
, Shall fold up their tents. like the Arabs.
And as silently steal away.
'. The Arabs be-that is to say, what hav
we got to do with the Arabs? the revise
is understood to inquire as he adopts th
amendment:
And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day.
a Shall fold up their tents like our Barnum,
: And as silently steal away.
> We have exhausted our space. But 1t
safe to say we have made it clear that tn
: revised Longfellow leaves nothing to
e desired-save possibly the other edition
: 1t is only to be added that the entire civi
lied world will unite in the prayer that II
day may never come when the cheek {
Innocence may lack champions.-N
: Tribune.
:, 1t is said that a call for "water" is r
j. corded but once in the Bible, and that
| in, ha1l