The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-02-24

,n the 2Tth of this month hundred GB years will have passed since Henry " Wadsworth Longfelow was born in the large, rambling house overlooking the sea at Portland, Me. The poets fame has undergone sharp vicissitudes during this cen- tury He rose speedily to be the most popular and best beloved of American poets; when he died. in 1882, it was con sidered m irreparable national calamity; today literary moguls exalt Whitman and Poe and sheer that Longfellow is good enough for children.
 But the enthusiasm with which prepa- ratlons have been made to celebrate the centenary, not only in Portland and Cam bridge but at many other plaees seems to indicate that the pendulum of opinion is about to swing backward again, ana people will realize despite superciiious critics, that what is good enough for ehil- dren Is none too good for their elders
 There is one story about Longfellow, told by William Dean Howells in "Ll= terary Friends and Acquaintance. which bodies forth better than columns os euogy the charm and loveliness of the man and his song. It was at Longfel- lows funeral Emerson had come from tOncCrl ana SlOOu Dtslut tue bifls ipoiA ing long upon the white face of the white poet as "dead he lay among his books. - Emersons memory was but a tlickerinS lamp at that time, and as he gazed upon Iongfellow's peaceful sleep he seemed to be pathetcally struggling to recall some thing little later he said "Ihe gentle man we have just been burying was a sweet and beautiful soul, but I forget his name"
 All of Longfelow's life and all his literary work are summed up in that sim pie tribute. He was "a sweet and beautl- full soul" The rude Norsemen, after their conversion to Christianity, used to speak of "the white Christ" and Bjornson, In letter to an American friend, wrote of 'the white MT. Longfellow' Though literary critics may forget his name" the great American people will always remember him as "a sweet and beautiful soul"
 Descended From Pilgrim Fathers.
 No life was ever freer from the talnt of anything mean or vile. He dlsproged the notion that genius must be unhealthy and cratic. The sprees of Robbie Burns, the lialsons of Lord Byron had nothing lO uO WILL AHtil bchiho, AhNSC tiSh AllShl have been greater poets had they lived decent and orderly lives like Wordsworth, Tennyson and our good New England bards No wonder that Longfelow was one of Natures noblemen; he was de- scended from the stern old Pilgrim stock -on his mothers side from four May flower families, including that of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, whom he has t, bo onrfSb in of Nfilaa StandIsh" His grandfather's grandfather, another coincidence between poetry and geneaiogy, was Village Blacksmith"
 The name of Longfeow was originally written Langfelay, and the maternal surname of Wadsworth first appeared as Wordsworth, so that there may have been distant link of relationship with the English poet Wordsworth, who was also descended from an ancient Yorkshire family Perhaps there is no better proof of Longfellow's real poetic power than the fact that he became a poet In spite of his rather ludicrous name Names Ike Shakespeare and Spenser have a fine flourish and dignity to them, but people would be inclined to laugh if a poet by the name of Shortboy put tn bid for fame. There is great deal in name as Lowell has said in his essay on Keats the adjective "Keatsy" Implies something contemptuous. But Longfellow has made his name the synonym for poetry-no one thinks any longer of q ludicrous connota- tion. His poetry has made men forget his name.
 Nor Is the appreciation of Longfellow confined to the young, as critical snob- bery assumes. In the balloting for the Hall of Fame Longfellow's name stood tenth among 90; Emerson's was tue only literary lsame above him. while Irving and HaNthorne were the only others