Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1909-01-20

containing 49, t.st7
more than eighty Of
lonsteilow's best poems, beginning with.
,ae ume-worn but precious psalm of
- e ana ending with the graphic sketch
OF "Charlemagne.n - =
u would be interesting If there were
some way of estimating the fruits Of
ngfeiiow's ennobling and refining poems
as they have reappeared in the lives Of
men and women. He has himself nut the
idea INTO one of his poems:
breathed song into tie air.
~ y Ieil 70 earth, 1 knew not where,
| INT INT VINO mas sight SO keen and strong.
ina. ie can follow the flight Of songf !,
Psalm OF Life" has been worn
trite by much use because its lines voice
the inmost philosophy of American optim-
ism:
Let US, then. be up and doing.
With heart for any fate
sui achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and TO walt.
Iongfellow has sounded the whole
gamut of youth in its nobler ambitions,
feminine and masculine alike. What boy
does not thrill to the idea OF Excel
sior," and what girl
Standing with reluctant feet,
where the brook and river meet,
Womanhood and childhood fleet III
does not feel the impulse to live q noble
life when she reads the exquisite poem on
"Maidenhood?" Then there are the mar.
ratiye poems, "a Skeleton in Armor.""
THE Wreck of the Hesperus' and ..The
Village Blacksmith" that have the uni
yersal charm of a good story as we'll. As
for "Hiawatha." that is the children's
own imperishable possession.
At the stern sat Hiawatha,
With his fishing line of cedar;
In his plumes the breeze of morning
Played as In the hemlock branches;
On the bows. with tall erected,
Sat the squirrel, Adjidaumo;
In his FUR the breeze OF morning
Played as In the prairie grasses.
The artist has made of this scene one
of his most graceful and delicately col
ored pictures.
Paul Revere's Ride" stirs the martial
BILE interest in Boston's historic old North
Church and the monumented spots ut
Lexington and Concord
hurry of hoofs In village street.
shape In the moonlight, bulk In the
And beneath, from the pebbles in passing
Struck out BY steed flying fearless and
.sg feet;
That was all And yet. through the gloom
and the light,
The fate Of a nation was riding that night.
And the spark struck out by that steed, in
Kindled the land into fame with Its heat.
Other old favorites include .The Build
ing Of the Ship" The Bridge" THE
Old Clock on the Stairs" Castles in
Spain" My Lost Youth" "Sandalphon."
THE Leap of Roushan Beg" "The Build
ers." "The Children's Hour. 1.-THE Cas-
tie Builder" and those three lovely poems
intoxicating kindness to animals-"The
Bell of Atri," Walter Won der vogel-
weld and "The Emperor's Birds Nest"
Whether 1t be true or not, it is the
fashion nowadays to say that nobody
reads poetry. In SO far as it Is true 1t is
not fact to be proud of. 1t suggests
the gentle Amier's bitter remark that the
modern world knows only "a poetry skin
ned and dissected by science" The popu-
lar craze for light fiction, In so far as
1t crowds out the literature of beauty and
noble inspiration, is national misfor-
tune. But if the hurry and materialism
of the age have perverted our own tastes.
at least let us give the unspoiled chill
dren chance to enjoy the finer joys OF
good poetry while their hearts are still
open to its benign influences. For this
purpose here ID nothing better than The
Children's Longfellow. T.. Shu-'
man in the Chicago Record Herald.
Fl ~ : i