The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-02-24
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lnS the 9th OF this month hundred
q years will have passed since Henry
s " Wordsworth longfellow was born. In
the large. rambling house overlooking the
SEA at Portland. Me The poets fame has
undergone sharp ricissitudes during this cen
fury He rose speedily to be the most
popular and best beloved OF American
poets; when be died, In 1852, II was con-
stlered an rreparable national calamity;
today literary moguls c1alt Whitman and
Poe and sheer that Longfclow Is good
enough for children.
But the enthusiasm with which prepa-
rations have been made to celebrate the
centenary. not only In Portland aud Cam.
bridge, but at many other places, seems
to indicate that the pendulum Of opinion
Is about to swing backward again. and
people will realize, despite supercllous
critics, that whit is good enough for chill.
drcn Is none too good for their elders.
There Is one story about Longfellow,
told by William Dean Howels In III.
terary Friends and Acquaintance" which
bodies forth better than columns of
culosy the charm md loneliness OF the
man and his song. 1t was at Longfel-
lows funeral Emerson hnd come from
Concord and stood beside the. bier, look
Ing long upon the white face Of the white
poet. as ''dend he lay among his books"
Emerson's memory was but pickering
lamp at that time, and rs he gazcd upon
Longfellow's peaceful sleep he seemed to
be pathetically struggling to recall some
thing. A little later he said: "rhc gentle
man we have just been burying wns n
sweet and beautiful soul, but ! forget his
name"
All OF Longfellow's life and nll 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 1.-THE white Christ and Bjornson, In
n letter to an American friend, wrote Of
'tle white Mr. Longfellow." Though
literary critics may forget his name"
the great American people will always
remember him rs "a sweet and beautiful
SOUL
Descended From Pilgrim Fathers.
No life was ever frcer from the faint
of anything mean or vile He disproyed
the notion that genius must be unhealthy
and crratlc. The sprees of Bobblc Burns,
i. N'S HiAu'soAS VI '-ohu ASs ioA hNu boAh'hs5
to do with their genius; these men might
have been greater poets had they lived
decent and orderly lives like Wordsworth,
Tennyson and our good New England
4Dards. No wonder that Longfellow was
one OF Natures nobemen: lie 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
immortalized In "Thc Conrtship of Miles
}standlsh." Ills grandfathcr's grandfather,
}another coincidence between poetry and
Sgenealogy, was a Village Blacksmith"
The name of I.ongfellow was originally
written Langfelay. and the maternal
surname OF Wndsworth first appeared rs
Wordsworth, so that there may have been
a distant link OF relationship with the
English poet Wordsworth, who was also
descended from IN ancient Yorkshire
family, Perhaps there Is no better proof
of Longfellow's real poetic power thun
the fact that he became poet Ia spite
OF his rather ludlcrous name, Names like
Shakespeare and Spenser have ane
flourish and dignity to them, but Deonle
would be Inclined to laugh If q poet by