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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poems & Other Writings: (Library of America #118)
825Overview
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: | 503,851 |
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 Poetry | 1 |
Hymn to the Night | 2 |
A Psalm of Life | 3 |
The Light of Stars | 4 |
Footsteps of Angels | 6 |
from Ballads and Other Poems | |
The Skeleton in Armor | 8 |
The Wreck of the Hesperus | 12 |
The Village Blacksmith | 15 |
It Is Not Always May | 17 |
The Rainy Day | 18 |
God's-Acre | 18 |
To the River Charles | 19 |
The Goblet of Life | 20 |
Excelsior | 22 |
from Poems on Slavery | |
The Slave's Dream | 24 |
The Slave Singing at Midnight | 25 |
The Witnesses | 26 |
The Warning | 27 |
from The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems | |
The Belfry of Bruges | 29 |
A Gleam of Sunshine | 31 |
The Arsenal at Springfield | 33 |
Rain in Summer | 35 |
To a Child | 37 |
The Occultation of Orion | 43 |
The Bridge | 45 |
To the Driving Cloud | 47 |
The Day Is Done | 48 |
Afternoon in February | 50 |
The Old Clock on the Stairs | 51 |
The Arrow and the Song | 53 |
The Evening Star | 53 |
Autumn | 54 |
Dante | 54 |
Curfew | 55 |
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie | 57 |
from The Seaside and the Fireside | |
The Building of the Ship | 116 |
Seaweed | 127 |
Chrysaor | 128 |
Twilight | 129 |
Sir Humphrey Gilbert | 130 |
The Lighthouse | 131 |
The Fire of Drift-Wood | 133 |
Resignation | 135 |
The Builders | 136 |
Sand of the Desert in an Hour-Glass | 138 |
The Open Window | 139 |
The Song of Hiawatha | 141 |
from The Courtship of Miles Standish and Other Poems | |
The Courtship of Miles Standish | 280 |
Birds of Passage | 323 |
The Ladder of St. Augustine | 324 |
The Phantom Ship | 326 |
The Warden of the Cinque Ports | 328 |
Haunted Houses | 329 |
In the Churchyard at Cambridge | 331 |
The Emperor's Bird's-Nest | 331 |
The Two Angels | 333 |
Daylight and Moonlight | 335 |
The Jewish Cemetery at Newport | 335 |
My Lost Youth | 337 |
The Ropewalk | 340 |
Daybreak | 342 |
The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz | 343 |
Children | 344 |
Sandalphon | 345 |
Poems 1859-1863 | |
The Children's Hour | 347 |
Enceladus | 348 |
The Cumberland | 349 |
Snow-Flakes | 351 |
A Day of Sunshine | 351 |
Something Left Undone | 352 |
Weariness | 353 |
from Tales of a Wayside Inn | |
Part First | |
Prelude: The Wayside Inn | 354 |
The Landlord's Tale: Paul Revere's Ride | 362 |
Interlude | 366 |
The Student's Tale: The Falcon of Ser Federigo | 367 |
Interlude | 375 |
The Spanish Jew's Tale: The Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi | 376 |
Interlude | 378 |
The Sicilian's Tale: King Robert of Sicily | 379 |
Interlude | 385 |
The Musician's Tale: The Saga of King Olaf | 386 |
Interlude | 431 |
The Theologian's Tale: Torquemada | 433 |
Interlude | 439 |
The Poet's Tale: The Birds of Killingworth | 440 |
Finale | 446 |
from Part Second | |
The Spanish Jew's Talc: Kambalu | 447 |
The Student's Tale: The Cobbler of Hagenau | 450 |
The Theologian's Tale: The Legend Beautiful | 456 |
from Part Third | |
The Spanish Jew's Tale: Azrael | 460 |
The Sicilian's Tale: The Monk of Casal-Maggiore | 461 |
Finale | 469 |
from Flower-de-Luce | |
Palingenesis | 472 |
Hawthorne | 474 |
Christmas Bells | 475 |
The Wind Over the Chimney | 476 |
Killed at the Ford | 478 |
Giotto's Tower | 479 |
Divina Commedia | 480 |
from Christus: A Mystery | |
from The Divine Tragedy | |
Mount Quarantania | 483 |
The Tower of Magdala | 485 |
Let Me Go Warm | 695 |
The Sea Hath Its Pearls | 696 |
Retribution | 697 |
The Grave | 697 |
Rondel | 698 |
The Artist | 699 |
To Vittoria Colonna | 699 |
Dante | 700 |
A Neapolitan Canzonet | 700 |
Selected Prose | |
Kavanagh, A Tale | 703 |
The Literary Spirit of Our Country | 791 |
Table-Talk | 796 |
Address on the Death of Washington Irving | 800 |
Chronology | 805 |
Note on the Texts | 816 |
Notes | 824 |
Index of Titles and First Lines | 850 |