Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poems & Other Writings: (Library of America #118)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poems & Other Writings: (Library of America #118)

Overview

No American writer of the nineteenth century was more universally enjoyed and admired than Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His works were extraordinary bestsellers for their era, achieving fame both here and abroad. Now, for the first time in over twenty-five years, The Library of America offers a full-scale literary portrait of America’s greatest popular poet.

Here are the poems that created an American mythology: Evangeline in the forest primeval, Hiawatha by the shores of Gitche Gumee, the midnight ride of Paul Revere, the wreck of the Hesperus, the village blacksmith under the spreading chestnut tree, the strange courtship of Miles Standish, the maiden Priscilla and the hesitant John Alden; verses like “A Psalm of Life” and “The Children’s Hour,” whose phrases and characters have become part of the culture. Here as well, along with the public antislavery poems, are the sparer, darker lyrics—"The Fire of Drift-Wood," “Mezzo Cammin,” “Snow-Flakes,” and many others—that show a more austere aspect of Longfellow’s poetic gift.

Erudite and fluent in many languages, Longfellow was endlessly fascinated with the byways of history and the curiosities of legend. As a verse storyteller he had no peer, whether in the great book-length narratives such as Evangeline and The Song of Hiawatha (both included in full) or the stories collected in Tales of a Wayside Inn (reprinted here in a generous selection). His many poems on literary themes, such as his moving homages to Dante and Chaucer, his verse translations from Lope de Vega, Heinrich Heine, and Michelangelo, and his ambitious verse dramas, notably The New England Tragedies (also complete), are remarkable in their range and ambition.

As a special feature, this volume restores to print Longfellow’s novel Kavanagh, a study of small-town life and literary ambition that was praised by Emerson as an important contribution to the development of American fiction. A selection of essays rounds out of the volume and provides testimony of Longfellow’s concern with creating an American national literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781883011857
Publisher: Library of America
Publication date: 08/28/2000
Series: Library of America Series , #118
Pages: 825
Sales rank: 416,070
Product dimensions: 5.16(w) x 8.15(h) x 1.09(d)

About the Author

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was the most popular and admired American poet of the nineteenth century. Born in Portland, Maine, and educated at Bowdoin College, Longfellow’s ambition was always to become a writer; but until mid-life his first profession was the teaching rather than the production of literature, at his alma mater (1829-35) and then at Harvard (1836-54). His teaching career was punctuated by two extended study-tours of Europe, during which Longfellow made himself fluent in all the major Romance and Germanic languages. Thanks to a fortunate marriage and the growing popularity of his work, from his mid-thirties onwards Longfellow, ensconced in a comfortable Cambridge mansion, was able to devote an increasingly large fraction of his energies to the long narrative historical and mythic poems that made him a household word, especially Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), and Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863, 1872, 1873). Versatile as well as prolific, Longfellow also won fame as a writer of short ballads and lyrics, and experimented in the essay, the short story, the novel, and the verse drama. Taken as a whole, Longfellow’s writings show a breadth of literary learning, an understanding of western languages and cultures, unmatched by any American writer of his time.

Read an Excerpt




Chapter One


from
THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT


The Spirit of Poetry


There is a quiet spirit in these woods,
That dwells where'er the gentle south-wind blows;
Where, underneath the white-thorn, in the glade,
The wild flowers bloom, or, kissing the soft air,
The leaves above their sunny palms outspread.
With what a tender and impassioned voice
It fills the nice and delicate ear of thought,
When the fast ushering star of morning comes
O'er-riding the gray hills with golden scarf;
Or when the cowled and dusky-sandalled Eve,
In mourning weeds, from out the western gate,
Departs with silent pace! That spirit moves
In the green valley, where the silver brook,
From its full laver, pours the white cascade;
And, babbling low amid the tangled woods,
Slips down through moss-grown stones with endless
    laughter.
And frequent, on the everlasting hills,
Its feet go forth, when it doth wrap itself
In all the dark embroidery of the storm,
And shouts the stern, strong wind. And here, amid
The silent majesty of these deep woods,
Its presence shall uplift thy thoughts from earth,
As to the sunshine and the pure, bright air
Their tops the green trees lift. Hence gifted bards
Have ever loved the calm and quiet shades.
For them there was an eloquent voice in all
The sylvan pomp of woods, the golden sun,
The flowers, the leaves, the river on its way,
Blue skies, and silver clouds, and gentle winds,
The swelling upland,where the sidelong sun
Aslant the wooded slope, at evening, goes,
Groves, through whose broken roof the sky looks in,
Mountain, and shattered cliff, and sunny vale,
The distant lake, fountains, and mighty trees,
In many a lazy syllable, repeating
Their old poetic legends to the wind.


    And this is the sweet spirit, that doth fill
The world; and, in these wayward days of youth,
My busy fancy oft embodies it,
As a bright image of the light and beauty
That dwell in nature; of the heavenly forms
We worship in our dreams, and the soft hues
That stain the wild bird's wing, and flush the clouds
When the sun sets. Within her tender eye
The heaven of April, with its changing light,
And when it wears the blue of May, is hung,
And on her lip the rich, red rose. Her hair
Is like the summer tresses of the trees,
When twilight makes them brown, and on her cheek
Blushes the richness of an autumn sky,
With ever-shifting beauty. Then her breath,
It is so like the gentle air of Spring,
As, from the morning's dewy flowers, it comes
Full of their fragrance, that it is a joy
To have it round us, and her silver voice
Is the rich music of a summer bird,
Heard in the still night, with its passionate cadence.


Hymn to the Night

[GREEK TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]


I heard the trailing garments of the Night
    Sweep through her marble halls!
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
    From the celestial walls!


I felt her presence, by its spell of might,
    Stoop o'er me from above;
The calm, majestic presence of the Night,
    As of the one I love.


I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,
    The manifold, soft chimes,
That fill the haunted chambers of the Night,
    Like some old poet's rhymes.


From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
    My spirit drank repose;
The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,—
    From those deep cisterns flows.


O holy Night! from thee I learn to bear
    What man has borne before!
Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care,
    And they complain no more.


Peace! Peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer!
    Descend with broad-winged flight,
The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair,
    The best-beloved Night!


A Psalm of Life


Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
    Life is but an empty dream!—
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
    And things are not what they seem.


Life is real! Life is earnest!
    And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
    Was not spoken of the soul.


Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
    Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
    Find us farther than to-day.


Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
    And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
    Funeral marches to the grave.


In the world's broad field of battle,
    In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
    Be a hero in the strife!


Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
    Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,—act in the living Present!
    Heart within, and God o'erhead!


Lives of great men all remind us
    We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
    Footprints on the sands of time;


Footprints, that perhaps another,
    Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
    Seeing, shall take heart again.


Let us, then, be up and doing,
    With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
    Learn to labor and to wait.


The Light of Stars


The night is come, but not too soon;
    And sinking silently,
All silently, the little moon
Drops down behind the sky.


There is no light in earth or heaven
    But the cold light of stars;
And the first watch of night is given
    To the red planet Mars.


Is it the tender star of love?
    The star of love and dreams?
Oh no! from that blue tent above
    A hero's armor gleams.


And earnest thoughts within me rise,
    When I behold afar,
Suspended in the evening skies,
    The shield of that red star.


O star of strength! I see thee stand
    And smile upon my pain;
Thou beckonest with thy mailed hand,
    And I am strong again.


Within my breast there is no light
    But the cold light of stars;
I give the first watch of the night
    To the red planet Mars.


The star of the unconquered will,
    He rises in my breast,
Serene, and resolute, and still,
    And calm, and self-possessed.


And thou, too, whosoe'er thou art,
    That readest this brief psalm,
As one by one thy hopes depart,
    Be resolute and calm.


Oh, fear not in a world like this,
    And thou shalt know erelong,
Know how sublime a thing it is
    To suffer and be strong.


Footsteps of Angels


When the hours of Day are numbered,
    And the voices of the Night
Wake the better soul, that slumbered,
    To a holy, calm delight;


Ere the evening lamps are lighted,
    And, like phantoms grim and tall,
Shadows from the fitful firelight
    Dance upon the parlor wall;


Then the forms of the departed
    Enter at the open door;
The beloved, the true-hearted,
    Come to visit me once more;


He, the young and strong, who cherished
    Noble longings for the strife,
By the roadside fell and perished,
    Weary with the march of life!


They, the holy ones and weakly,
    Who the cross of suffering bore,
Folded their pale hands so meekly,
    Spake with us on earth no more!


And with them the Being Beauteous,
    Who unto my youth was given,
More than all things else to love me,
    And is now a saint in heaven.


With a slow and noiseless footstep
    Comes that messenger divine,
Takes the vacant chair beside me,
    Lays her gentle hand in mine.


And she sits and gazes at me
    With those deep and tender eyes,
Like the stars, so still and saint-like,
    Looking downward from the skies.


Uttered not, yet comprehended,
    Is the spirit's voiceless prayer,
Soft rebukes, in blessings ended,
    Breathing from her lips of air.


Oh, though oft depressed and lonely,
    All my fears are laid aside,
If I but remember only
    Such as these have lived and died!

Table of Contents

from The Voices of the Night
The Spirit of Poetry1
Hymn to the Night2
A Psalm of Life3
The Light of Stars4
Footsteps of Angels6
from Ballads and Other Poems
The Skeleton in Armor8
The Wreck of the Hesperus12
The Village Blacksmith15
It Is Not Always May17
The Rainy Day18
God's-Acre18
To the River Charles19
The Goblet of Life20
Excelsior22
from Poems on Slavery
The Slave's Dream24
The Slave Singing at Midnight25
The Witnesses26
The Warning27
from The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems
The Belfry of Bruges29
A Gleam of Sunshine31
The Arsenal at Springfield33
Rain in Summer35
To a Child37
The Occultation of Orion43
The Bridge45
To the Driving Cloud47
The Day Is Done48
Afternoon in February50
The Old Clock on the Stairs51
The Arrow and the Song53
The Evening Star53
Autumn54
Dante54
Curfew55
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie57
from The Seaside and the Fireside
The Building of the Ship116
Seaweed127
Chrysaor128
Twilight129
Sir Humphrey Gilbert130
The Lighthouse131
The Fire of Drift-Wood133
Resignation135
The Builders136
Sand of the Desert in an Hour-Glass138
The Open Window139
The Song of Hiawatha141
from The Courtship of Miles Standish and Other Poems
The Courtship of Miles Standish280
Birds of Passage323
The Ladder of St. Augustine324
The Phantom Ship326
The Warden of the Cinque Ports328
Haunted Houses329
In the Churchyard at Cambridge331
The Emperor's Bird's-Nest331
The Two Angels333
Daylight and Moonlight335
The Jewish Cemetery at Newport335
My Lost Youth337
The Ropewalk340
Daybreak342
The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz343
Children344
Sandalphon345
Poems 1859-1863
The Children's Hour347
Enceladus348
The Cumberland349
Snow-Flakes351
A Day of Sunshine351
Something Left Undone352
Weariness353
from Tales of a Wayside Inn
Part First
Prelude: The Wayside Inn354
The Landlord's Tale: Paul Revere's Ride362
Interlude366
The Student's Tale: The Falcon of Ser Federigo367
Interlude375
The Spanish Jew's Tale: The Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi376
Interlude378
The Sicilian's Tale: King Robert of Sicily379
Interlude385
The Musician's Tale: The Saga of King Olaf386
Interlude431
The Theologian's Tale: Torquemada433
Interlude439
The Poet's Tale: The Birds of Killingworth440
Finale446
from Part Second
The Spanish Jew's Talc: Kambalu447
The Student's Tale: The Cobbler of Hagenau450
The Theologian's Tale: The Legend Beautiful456
from Part Third
The Spanish Jew's Tale: Azrael460
The Sicilian's Tale: The Monk of Casal-Maggiore461
Finale469
from Flower-de-Luce
Palingenesis472
Hawthorne474
Christmas Bells475
The Wind Over the Chimney476
Killed at the Ford478
Giotto's Tower479
Divina Commedia480
from Christus: A Mystery
from The Divine Tragedy
Mount Quarantania483
The Tower of Magdala485
Let Me Go Warm695
The Sea Hath Its Pearls696
Retribution697
The Grave697
Rondel698
The Artist699
To Vittoria Colonna699
Dante700
A Neapolitan Canzonet700
Selected Prose
Kavanagh, A Tale703
The Literary Spirit of Our Country791
Table-Talk796
Address on the Death of Washington Irving800
Chronology805
Note on the Texts816
Notes824
Index of Titles and First Lines850

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