and find their earthly affection changed into something holy as religion. And what is time to the married of eternity?" Amid the tears of many and a swell of exalted sentiment in those who felt aright was solemnized the union of two immortal souls. The train of withered mourners, the hoary 315 bridegroom in his shroud, the pale features of the aged bride and the death-bell tolling through the whole till its deep voice overpowered the marriage-words, all marked the funeral of earthly hopes. But as the ceremony proceeded, the organ, as if stirred by the sympathies of this impressive 320 scene, poured forth an anthem, first mingling with the dismal knell, then rising to a loftier strain, till the soul looked down upon its woe. And when the awful rite was finished and with cold hand in cold hand the married of eternity withdrew, the organ's peal of solemn triumph drowned the 325 wedding-knell. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 1807-1882 Whenever American poets are mentioned, the name that flashes at once into the mind at the head of the list is that of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Like Washington, but in a literary rather than in a political sense, he is "first in the hearts of his countrymen." He has produced a larger body of poetry than has any other of our poets, his poems are more familiarly read and quoted than are the works of any of our other writers, and he has been more widely translated and more prominently recognized abroad, particularly in England, as the most representative, if not the most original and powerful, of our poets. Longfellow is the only one of the more distinguished New England men of letters born outside the present borders of Massachusetts. Portland, Maine, his birthplace, was really a part of Massachusetts at the time of his birth, February 27, 1807. He studied at Bowdoin College, and was graduated in 1825 along with Nathaniel Hawthorne and several other men who rose to prominence. Longfellow's father was a lawyer, and he had proposed to give his son a legal education after he finished college; but in his senior year the young man professed in a letter to his father his aspiration for future eminence in literature. "Whether Nature has given me any capacity for knowledge or not, she has at any rate given me a strong predilection for literary pursuits, and I am almost confident in believing that if I can ever rise in the world, it must be by the exercise of my talent in the wide field of literature. With such a belief, I must say that I am unwilling to engage in the study of law." He had asked the privilege of spending a year after graduation at Bowdoin in studying what was then called belles-lettres, or polite literature, at Harvard College. His father consented, but the trustees of Bowdoin College offered the young graduate a professorship in modern languages on the condition that he should go abroad for study at his own expense. His father furnished the money, and the prospective professor, then but nineteen, sailed for Europe. He UNIV. OF From a painting by Healy in the possession HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW spent three years studying the languages and literatures of France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. This contact with European literature and culture was the best possible preparation for his later work as a poet. He returned to Bowdoin and began his work as a teacher in 1829. He had not only to do all the work of directing his classes in the various foreign languages, but also to prepare elementary textbooks for the guidance of his pupils. He did his work well, and in 1834 he was called to succeed George Ticknor as Smith professor of French and Spanish at Harvard College. In April, 1835, he sailed again to Europe for another year and a half of study. In 1831 he had married Miss Mary Potter of Portland, and he took his wife along with him. Her health was delicate, and she died in Rotterdam, Holland, some months later. She is fittingly commemorated in the poem "Footsteps of Angels." Partly to bury himself from his grief and partly in preparation for his future work at Harvard, the poet plunged into the study of German language and literature. He made good progress and by the summer of 1836 he was ready to return to America to enter upon his professorship. When he went to Cambridge, he was directed to the home of Mrs. Craigie, who owned the famous old Craigie House where General Washington once had his headquarters during the Revolutionary War. Mrs. Craigie at first refused to accept him, taking him for a college student, but when she found out that he was the new professor and the author of Outre Mer, she gave him rooms in her home. When Longfellow married Miss Frances Appleton in 1843, his father-in-law made them a present of Craigie House, which has since become a sort of literary shrine for pilgrims from all over the world. There Longfellow lived the remainder of his life. After eighteen years of service he resigned his professorship to James Russell Lowell, but he continued to live in Cambridge and take a lively interest in the affairs of the university. Longfellow's prose works are Outre Mer ("Beyond the Sea") (1833), a sort of imitation of Irving's Sketch Book with scenes drawn from France, Spain, and Italy; Hyperion (1839), a sentimentalized romance interspersed with German legends, translation, and bits of description; and Kavanagh (1849), a realistic novel of rural New England life. These have been overshadowed by the greater popularity of his |