Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1909-02-02

:, oeol poems, beginning Win
Ine ume-worn but precious psalm of
Life and ending with the graphic sketch
Of "Charlemagne."
IL would be interesting If there were
some way of estimating the fruits of
Longfellow's ennobling and refining poems
as they have reappeared in tbs lives of
men and women. He has himself put the
idea into one Of his poems:
breathed a song into tie air.
II Tell TO earth, l knew not where,
For who has sight so keen and strong
That 1t can follow the flight of song!
"A Psalm of Life" has been worn
trite by much use because its lines voice
the Utmost philosophy of American optim-
ism:
Let US, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still 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,
Where the brook and river meet,
Womanhood end childhood fleet
does not feel the impulse to live a noble
life when she reads the exquisite poem on
"Maidenhood" 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 good story as well. 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 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 delicately col
ored pictures.
Paul Revere's Ride" stirs the martial
soul of youth and srousss an imperisha-
BILE interest in Bostof'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
dark.
And beneath, from the pebbles. in passing.
spark
Struck out by steed flying fearless and
fleet:
That was all And yet, through the gloom
and the light,
The fate of nation was riding that night.
And the spark struck out by that steed, in
his flight.
Kindied the land into fame with Its hea-
Other old favorites include The Guild
ing of the Ship" ''The Bridge" The
Old Clock on the Stairs Stairs" Castles in
Spain" any Lost Youth, !" "Sandalphon,'
The Leap of Roushan Beg" THE Build
ers," 1.-THE Children's Hour" "The Cas-
tie Builder and those three lovely poems
intoxicating kindness TO animals-"The
Bell of Atri," walter Won der Vogel-
weld and 1.-The Emperor's Birds Nest
Whether IL be true or not, 1t 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 popr-
lar craze for light fiction. in so far as
il 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 there is nothing better than The
Children's Longfellow. Edwin L. Shu-
man in the Chicago Record-Herald-