The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1909-03-26

Longfellow's best poems. beginning will
the tlme-worn but precious psalm O
LIE and ending with the graphic sketcl
OF "Charlemagne."
1t would be interesting if there were
some way of estimating the fruits OF
Longfellow's ennobling and refining poems
as they have reappeared in the lives OF
men and women. He has himself put the
IDEA into one of his poems
breathed song into tie air.
IL rell to earth, | knew not where,
FOR who has sight so keen and strong.
Ihat 1t can follow the fight of songf
"A Psalm of Life" has been worn
= trite by much use because it's lines voice
the inmost philosophy of American optim.
ism:
Let us, then, be up and doing.
With heart for any fate;
sun achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and TO wait
Longfellow 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
Wnefe the brook ana river meet,
Womanh0od and childhood fleet
does not feel the impulse to live a noble
life when she reads the exquisite poem on
"Maidenbood" Then there are the mar
rative poems, "A Skeleton in Armor,"
"The Wreck Of the Hesperus" and "The
Village Blacksmith" that have the uni
versal charm of a good story as we'll AS
for "IIiawatha," that is the children's
own imperishabIe possession.
At the stern sat Hiawatha,
With his fishing line of cedar;
In his pllmes the breeze of morning
Played as In the hemloek branches
On the bows, with tail 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 delcately col
ored pictures.
Paul Revere's Ride strs the martial
soul of youth and aronses an imperisha-
Bile interest in Boston's historic old North
Church and the monumented spots at
Lexington and Concord.
A hurry OF hoofs in village street,
A shape In the moonlight bulk In the
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing,
q spark
Struck out by steed flying fearless and
fleet;
Tat 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
his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with It's heat
Other old favorites include "'rhe Build
ing of the Ship" 'The Bridge" 'rhe
Old Clock on the Stairs" Castles in
SPAIN "My Lost YOUTH" "Sandalphon."
"rhe Leap Of Roushan Beg" "'rhe Build
ers," "The Children's Hour" ".rhe Cas-
tie Builder" and those three lovely poems
intoxicating kindness to animals-"The
Bell of Atri," "WaIter Won der Voge-
weld" and "'rhe Emperor's Birds Nest"
Whether it be true or not, it is the
fashion nowadays to say that nobody
reads poetry. In so far as it is true it is
not fact to be proud Of 1t suggests
the gentle Amer'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
It crowds out the literature of beauty and |
noble inspiration, Is national misfor-
tune. But II the hurry and materialism
Of the age have perverted our own tastes,
Mt least let us give the unspoied chill
dren chance to enjoy the finer joys of
good poetry while their hearts are still
open to its benign influences. For this
there is nothing better than "rhe
Children's Longfellow. Edwin l.. Shu.
man In the Chicago Record Herald.