Perth Amboy evening news., 1907-03-01

dicrons connotation. His poetry has
made men forget his name.
Nor is the appreciation of Longfel-
low confined to the young, as critical
snobbery assumes. In the balloting
Tor the Hall of Fame Longfellow's
name stood tenth among 80; Emer-
sons was the only literary name
above him, while Irving and Haw-
thorne were the only others chosen.
The nine men who ranked ahead of
Longfellow were Washington, Lin
coin, Webster. Franklin, Grant, Mar
shall, JEFFERSON, Emerson and Fulton.
The Poets Childhood. y
Like Goethe and many another
great poet, Longfellow was first
taught to appreciate the beauties Of
verse by his mother. She read Cow
per, Hannah More and Ossian to the
children. She was a sensible woman,
besides, not afraid of thunderstorm,
but enjoying the excitement of it's
splendors."
Henry's first poem was published
In the Portland Gazette when he was
little more than 13. 1t runs as fol-
lows:
THE BATTLE OF LOvELL'S POND.
Cold. cold is the north wind and rude
is the blast
That sweeps like a hurricane loudly
and fast
AS it means through the tall. waving
pines lone and drear,
Sighs requiem sad DER the warrier's
bier.
The war-whoop is still. and the saw
ages yell
Has sunk into silence along the wild
dell;
The din of the battle, the tumult Is
DER,
And the war-clarion's voice is now
heard no more.
The warriors that fought for their
country. and bled,
Have sunk to their rest: the damp
earth is their bed:
No stone tells the place where their
ashes repose,
Nor points out the spot from the
graves of their foes.
They died in their glory, surrounded
by fame,
And victory's loud trump their death
did proclaim;
They are dead; but they live in each
| patriots breast,
And their names are engraven on
honor's bright crest.
The young poets ambition received
cruel blow the evening of the very
day when he first saw himself In
print He accompanied his father to
friends house, where the talk of
the men turned upon poetry did
you. see the piece in todayis .paper?''
asked the host. Very stiff" he add
ed; remarkably; moreover, it is all
borrowed. every word of it," The
13-year-old poet cried himself to
sleep that night.
A year or so later, in 1921, Long
fellow went to Bowdoin College
There Nathaniel Hawthorne was one
/ of his classmates; another was Frank
Pierce, destined to become president
of the United States. Perhaps, the
most significant episode of Longfel-
lows college life was that one exhi-
bition day, In a debate, he assumed
the character and defended, the course
of the American Indian. which may
have been the initial impulse TO writ
ing "Hiawatha" many years after.
His Early Writings.
| While he was in college Longfel-
low began sending contributions to
the united States Literary Gazette, >
in whose columns Bryant slso figured
quite frequently. Along with much
immature verse there appeared here
the ine "Hymn OF -.,e Moraviar
Nuns" although we know Pulaski's
banner was only 20 inches square
and would not have made a very
good "rna,'...al cloak and stroud"
The Letters of Sir William Jones
who knew 2S languages, but is re-
membered chiefly by that classic Of
the Third Reader, What Constitutes
a State?"-impelled Longfellow tt
the study of foreign tongues after ht
was graduated from Bowdoin. fourth
in his class. Few people are NOV
aware that Longfellow's first printed
book was a French grammar, trans
lated from L'Homond, and his frs
original work to be printed was writ
ten in French, and was "Syllabu
of Italian Grammar" And even hi
first volume of verse was made up o
translations from the Spanish copla