Is it not in the two fields suggested by Plato, that Longfellow rendered distinct service? Was he not one gifted to discern and to reveal the true nature of the beautiful and graceful, and has he not recorded deeds of endurance which we ought to see and to hear? And with it all has he not kept his pages free from the slightest approach to moral deformity and corruption? It may not be uninteresting to test Longfellow's work by some of the better known definitions of poetry. Milton's canon was that poetry should be "simple, sensuous, passionate". To this test Mr. Stedman thinks Longfellow's poetry peculiarly conformable (Poets of America, page 224). Poe, a poet utterly unlike Milton, defines poetry as "the rhythmical creation of beauty". His first citation illustrative of his definition is from Longfellow. Matthew Arnold's definition of poetry as "a criticism of life", and his assertion that it is the mission of poetry "to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us", may certainly be said to apply with distinct appropriateness to Longfellow. If we go farther and agree with Carlyle, quoting Milton, that "he who would write heroic poems must make his whole life a heroic poem'-(Essay on Burns)—where is the life that would better exemplify the truth than Longfellow's? It would be easy to continue this comparison-always, we think, to the credit of Longfellow, but other definitions and their application we leave to the reader who may care to follow up the line of thought suggested. We should not of course content ourselves with a study so general as that which has been outlined, but, as in the case of Bryant, go on, by self-directed investigation and by a comparison of Longfellow with other poets, to a consideration of the qualities which especially mark his poetry. Test his product as a whole, for example, for simplicity of style, beautiful imagery, musical expression, moral earnestness, human sympathy and narrative power. Add yet other marks that may seem to you essential or excellent and continue the investigation. Study also what Professor Neilson says, quotation page 43, concerning the enrichment of the commonplace. Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and Browning have used the commonplace to our permanent enrichment. What is the "humbler process' that marks the work of Longfellow? To be specific-what is the difference between the central truth set forth in a great poem like Browning's Andrea del Sarto "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" and Longfellow's Excelsior? How does the truth embodied in Resignation differ in substance from the teaching of Tennyson's "In Memoriam"? If the essential difference lies not so much in the message as in the manner of presentation, can the charge of lack of originality in thought rightly be brought against Longfellow? Consider again the fact that Tennyson, far more popular than Browning, is less read today in England than Longfellow. What then must be the element of appeal in Longfellow's poetry? Consider again a great poem like Browning's Saul or his Death in the Desert or the better known Prospice. How easy do you find it to repeat passages from these poems? Try the experiment with a poet thought to be simpler than Browning, Wordsworth, for example, in his ode, Intimations of Immortality. Is it more or less difficult to memorize this than Longfellow's Ship of State? Popularity and ease of mastery are of course not to be taken as indubitable evidences of greatness but are they to be regarded as evidences of weakness? At any rate our study-along the lines suggested, may help us to a better conception of Longfellow's mission and ministry-and this is one of the objects of criticism. The merits of Longfellow as a literary artist are worthy of consideration. Read what Stedman-Poets of Americahas to say on this subject. Who has written in a greater variety of measures or with more perfection of form? Consider also the wide variety of subject matter and of literary forms. Read the index of titles to a complete edition of Longfellow's poems. If we were to follow President Eliot's suggestion of seeking culture from the contents of a five foot book shelf, is there any other one volume conceivable that would bring us into possession of a larger and more varied portion of the world's culture than Longfellow's complete poems? Consider the forms of poetry, lyric, epic, ballad, dramatic, and the numerous sub-divisions-sacred lyric, patriotic lyric, ode, sonnet, nature songs, elegiac verse, idyls, pastoral, how many of all these and other forms and classes of poetry do you find in Longfellow? Other thought questions on Longfellow's poetry may be suggested by the list given on Bryant. The purpose here is not to attempt a detailed consideration of particular poems. The teacher or student interested in this form of studies will be able to secure an almost unlimited amount of material. There are special studies of this kind in most of the educational journals, and in a number of booklets issued by the several publishing houses. Among the latter may be mentioned Gannett's Studies in Longfellow, published by the Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, and two or more numbers of the English Leaflet Series, by Stebbins & Co., Brooklyn. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW TOPICS FOR PAPERS OR FOR DISCUSSION Longfellow-the man and the poet. The formative influences of his life. His travels and studies abroad and their influence upon his writings. His apostolic mission. The wide range of his sympathies. The causes of his popularity. His conception of the poet's mission. His most salient gifts. His secret of finding readers and of retaining them. His life and friendships—as revealed in his poetry. Longfellow as a lyrist. As narrative poet. As a religious teacher. His ballads-compared with those of other American authors, particularly Whittier. Evangeline-the flower of American idyls. Hiawatha-our American epic. The Courtship of Miles Standish—a Puritan pastoral. Longfellow's sonnets. Longfellow -the metrical artist. A singer in all keys. The poet of sentiment-not sentimentality. The apostle of sweetness and light. Longfellow set to music-or, a musical evening with Longfellow. Longfellow's women. Longfellow's children. Poet of home and fireside. Our poet of the sea. American pictures of Indian life-Longfellow and Cooper compared. Longfellow-the metrical supplement of Irving. Longfellow and Burns-the peoples' poets. Poet of nature and poet of man-Bryant and Longfellow compared. Longfellow-the musical artist compared with Mendelssohn and Schubert. Longfellow set to music (see Ditson & Co., lists). Longfellow's poetry as a criticism of life. The title-our American laureate—in what sense deserved. The cultural value of a study of Longfellow's works. Our debt to Longfellow. Additional topics will be found in the "Suggestions for Study", and in the material relating to the other poets. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW PHRASAL POWER (See discussion of this subject under Bryant.) And like a bell, with solemn sweet vibrations, -Arsenal at Springfield. Memories haunt thy pointed gables, Like the rooks that round them throng. -Nuremburg. Tuscan, that wanderest through the realms of gloom, Thy sacred song is like the trump of doom; Such is the cross I wear upon my breast -Dante. These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes -Cross of Snow. As up the convent-walls, in golden streaks, -Dante. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic. |