Perth Amboy evening news., 1907-03-01
LONCFELLOW CENTEN-
vNlAL is OBSERVED.

From this poem, with its pictur-
esque adjectives, everybody knows
the Longfellow children. We can see
their mother, too by the light of the
poets phrase about her deep, unut-
terable eyes," and by the lines in his
pathetic sonnet. The Cross of Snow"
Soul more white
Never through martyrdo mof fire was
led
To lis repose.
Mrs. Longfellow was burned to
death by a shocking accident. For
a second time the poets life was DESC
lated, and again he went on his way
in faith and fortitude, like the noun
tain, wearing his cross of snow upon
his breast" The sonnet upon her
death was never shown to the world,
and reposed in his own portfolio until
after his own death. 1t was one of
those poems of which he told Will
liam Winter, poems that were for
himself alone, that he should not care
ever TO publish, because they were
too delicate for publication.
I A Noble and Gracious Soul.
So he went on to the close of his
life, in 1882, undiminished in poetic
sweetness, a noble and gracious soul,
full worthy of Emerson's pathetic
tribute. Some of his ripest and rich
est work belong to those declining
years. Tales of Wayside Inn"
appeared in 1868; "Christus," per-
haps his high water mark, in 1872; |
! "The Hanging of the Crane" in 1874. |
/ The Bells of San Bias" in 1882,
was the last important poem he
wrote.
BIT was not his whole life, SO
clean and tender and sunny, the
sweetest of all his poems? One is re-
minded of Biornson's phrase, "the
white Mr.. Longfellow,' by his simple !
limitation of the Masters words !
''Shffer little children to come unto
me-" No other witness is needed to
reveal the beauty of his spirit. When
! thef spreading chestnut truce" was
! felled which shadowed the village
.smithKyin- Brattle street a great arm |
chair for the poet was fashioned from I
it's wood by the subscriptions of
school children. Longfellow gave or
! ders that any child should be allowed |
to see the chair at any time, and Mr. |
! Higginson records that ''the tramp of |
dirty little feet through the hall was
for many months the despair of
| housemaids."
Another evidence of his unfailing |
! 1t, Il te, nh fhn
autograph fiend. Once he records in
| his diary that yesterday I wrote, |
sealed and directed 20 autographs. "
Just before his seventy-four birth |
day lady sent him a hundred blank |
cards, asking him to write his name
on EACH as she was going to give a
party and wished each guest to have
q souvenir.
His hospitable home was always
open to every newcomer, and at most
we find him wishing, when engaged
upon some particularly absorbing
work, 20, for good snowstorm to
block the door!" And once when
there was trouble at Harvard be-
tween students and faculty one of the
! young ringleaders said Let us go to
| Professor Longfellow He always
treats us like gentlemen"
A Truly National Poet.
I Such was the man, lovable and |
large souled, whom America this
week, on the completion of century
since his birth, honors as one of her
representative national poets and the
first to win for American poetry
abroad that recognition which Irving
had forced for American prose. BY
his choice of national subjects, by his
unerring taste and scholarship, by
his simplicity and poise, he compelled
the world to look our way. And, as
Barrett Wendell has pointed out, he
comes very near a world-old defini-
tion of literary greatness, which has
sometimes been held the virtue of
those who think the thoughts of the
wise and who speak the language of
the simple"
Besides teaching the world to look
our way, he opened for us gates of !
song throughout the world. He made
Americans familiar with Tegner and |
Uhland' and Manrique and Jasmin
and Michael Angelo as poet. He was,
perhaps, the most skillful translator
of verse that English literature has
seen, and he has been repaid in kind
by being the most translated of all
American poets Some interesting
facts are connected with these trans
lations Freiligrath LongfelloW's /