His Outre-Mer, a literary product. Taught four modern languages, and prepared his own textbooks in French, Spanish, and Italian. "He wrote his text-books at an age when most poets go a-gypsy ing." Five years of teaching here. Salary, a thousand dollars. Becomes a Contributor to The North American Review. Marriage to Mary Storer Potter, the "Being Beauteous." 1831. Keeps a Scrap-book of notices of his writings, calling it "Puffs and Counter-blasts." Called to Harvard, as Smith Professor of Modern Languages and Belles-lettres. (Succeeds George Ticknor, the historian of Spanish literature, and is followed later by James Russell Lowell.) Second Residence Abroad, for study of the Scandinavian tongues and further acquaintance with Germany. Visits Carlyle, through Emerson's letter of introduction. See poem, "Footsteps of Angels" (written many years Continues his journey to the region of the Rhine. Meets Bryant at Heidelberg, whose influence proves both soothing and strengthening. Becomes acquainted, at Interlachen, with Miss Frances Appleton (travelling with her family), sister of Thomas Gold Appleton, the Boston littérateur, who inspires the writing of his romance, Hyperion. In this, Miss Appleton appears as Mary Ashburton. Return to America. 1837. Publishes Hyperion" and "Voices of the Night." 1839. Written in "Washington's south-east chamber" of the famous "The public plighted its faith to the new poet, and no meddling critics have since been able to break the alliance." Life in Cambridge, at the Craigie House, Brattle Street. "He was scrupulously faithful to his duties, and even went through the exhausting process of marking French exercises Charles Sumner, Cornelius C. Felton, George S. Hillard, All gifted men, and possessed of literary tastes. Friendship with Sumner. The two were distantly connected by marriage. Sumner was a lecturer in the Harvard Law School when Longfellow came to Cambridge. When near Boston, Sumner spent every Sabbath with the poet. lic speeches. Wrote two poems on Sumner. His poems on slavery were largely due to Sumner's urgency that he should express himself on the subject. Occupies the professor's chair seventeen years, and then leads a retired life. Read Lowell's "Cambridge Thirty Years Ago:" Fireside Travels. (For an illustrated historical sketch of Harvard's college buildings and Cambridge as a university town, consult Harper's Magazine for January, 1876.) Marriage to Frances Appleton, and Purchase of the Craigie House. 1843. (See note on the House under Miscellaneous Notes.) "His home, if deeply saddened in recent years, was always the House Beautiful." Children. Five. Charles Appleton. Severely wounded in the Civil War. Has illustrated, with fifty-one designs, a collection of twenty of his father's poems. Three daughters. The "blue-eyed banditti" of his "Children's Hour." Alice. Occupies the Craigie House, and invites to it annually a number of working-girls from Boston. One of the three committee women of Cambridge. Mr. Thorpe's sister married the violinist, Ole Bull, who Edith, Mrs. Richard H. Dana, Jr. Mr. Dana is a grandson of the poet Dana. Thomas Buchanan Read's portrait of the trio hangs in the Contributes Frequent Poems to The Atlantic Monthly. The poet was too severely injured in trying to subdue the flames to attend the funeral. No direct mention of his loss appeared in his later poetry, but this bears a sadder tone. His translation of Dante became the poet's solace. (Recall Remark to a friend in after years. "I was too happy, I might fancy the gods envied me if I could fancy heathen gods." See posthumous poem, "In the long, sleepless watches of the night" (The Cross of Snow). Trip to England. His fourth journey to Europe. LL.D. from Cambridge. D.C.L. from Oxford. Elected a Member of the Historical and Geographical Society of Brazil; of the Scientific Academy of St. Petersburg; of the Royal Academy of Spain; of the Massachusetts Historical Society; and of the Mexican Academy of Arts and Sciences. Delivers "Morituri Salutamus." (See note under Writings.) Celebration of Seventy-fifth Birthday throughout the schools of the country. Read Whittier's poem, "The Poet and the Children." Death in Cambridge, and Burial at Mt. Auburn. A palm branch and a passion-flower were laid upon the casket. At the service, verses from "Hiawatha" were read, beginning "He is dead, the sweet musician!" Fields, Holmes, Emerson, Lowell, and Whittier were among the mourners present. Public Memorials to Longfellow. A monument at Portland, 1888. Bust in Westminster Abbey, in the Poets' Corner. (The first American author thus distinguished.) See view in Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography, and in Final Memorials of Longfellow, p. 408. The Longfellow Park in Cambridge. Land opposite the Craigie House, secured by the Longfellow Commands the poet's favorite view of the Charles. Character. Introspective, exact, methodical, symmetrical, impressionable, buoyant; liberal in his judgments; "full of the modesty that generally characterizes great genius;" had a pronounced taste for linguistic study and for travel. Generous to fellow-poets. "Where others were cold, or satirical, or contemptuous, he was kind and cordial, and full of cheer." Fond of children, and especially kind to them. "Liked little girls best," he told Lowell, adding – "What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice And all things nice, That's what little girls are made of." "Pure, kindly, and courteous, simple yet scholarly, he was never otherwise than a gentleman." — WHITTIER. Appearance, Voice, and Manner. "His natural dignity and grace, and the beautiful refinement of countenance, together with his perfect taste in dress, and the exquisite simplicity of his manners, made him the absolute ideal of what a poet should be. His voice, too, was soft, sweet, and musical; and, like his face, it had the innate charm of tranquillity. His eyes were bluish-gray, very bright and brave, changeable under the influence of emotion (as afterward I saw), but mostly calm, grave, attentive, and gentle. The habitual expression of his face was not that of sadness; and yet it was pensive. He had conquered his own sorrrows thus far, but the sorrows of others threw their shadows over him.'" - WILLIAM WINTER. "His face was the mirror of his harmonious and lovely mind." "I do not think I ever saw a finer human face." - CHARLES KINGSLEY. "The charm of a well-bred manner asserts itself over every other personal attribute." "His gentle tact and exquisite courtesy remind one of that fine compliment paid to Villemand, which is a fine definition of politeness, — ‘when he spoke to a lady one would think he had offered her a bouquet.' The Village Blacksmith. The Bridge. To the River Charles. Footsteps of Angels. In the Long, Sleepless Watches of the Night. The Two Angels. (See note on this poem under the death of Maria White Lowell.) The Children's Hour. Morituri Salutamus. From My Arm-chair. Old St. David's at Radnor. Kéramos. The Rope-walk. (The last two poems were evoked by the pottery and the ropewalk in Portland, Me., familiar to the poet's boyhood.) L'Envoi (The Poet and His Songs). My Books. Weari ness. |