American poems: Longfellow: Whittier: Bryant: Holmes: Lowell: Emerson; with biographical sketches and notes

Front matter

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Book ■ S) %

Preface To Second Edition

The general use which has followed the first publication of American Poems confirms the editor in his belief that such a book has a real place in our educational system, and he is gratified by the wide and cordial recognition which it has received. The few criticisms which have been offered seem mainly to have sprung from a hasty consideration of its intention. It does not profess to be a representative volume of American poetry, nor, in a comprehensive way, of the poets whose works are included in it, but, because the poems are of themselves worthy and the group is American in origin and tone, the book has a significance which justifies its title. The brief sketches of the authors contained in it were necessarily limited to the main facts of their literary life, but the editor, in reviewing his work under the more favorable conditions of a completed book and lapse of time, perceives with renewed and stronger feeling how pure and admirable is the spirit in which these American poets have wrought, how high an ideal has been before them, and with what grace and beauty their lives have reinforced their poems ! Surely, the poets have given

IV PREFACE.

America no greater gift than their own characters and lofty lives.

Scarcely any attempt at criticism was made of our writers in this volume ; in the companion volume of American Prose^ where all but one of the poets appear again, the opportunity has been taken to call attention more specifically to the art, as here to the biographic details. The two volumes will be found to complement each other.

January^ 1880.

Preface

This volume of American Poems has been prepared with special reference to the interests of young people, both at school and at home. Reading-books and popular collections of poetry contain many of the shorter and well-known poems of the authors represented in this book, but the scope of such collections does not generally permit the introduction of the longer poems. It is these poems, and, with a slight exception, these only, that make up this volume. The power to read and enjoy poetry is one of the finest results of education, but it cannot be attained by exclusive attention to short poems ; there is involved in this power the capacity for sustained attention, the remaining with the poet upon a long flight of imagination,

PREFACE. V

the exercise of the mind in bolder sweep of thought. Moreover, the familiarity with long poems produces greater power of appreciation when the shorter ones are taken up. It is much to take deep breaths of the upper air, to fill the lungs with a good draught of poetry, and unless one accompanies the poet in his longer reaches, he fails to know what poetry can give him.

In making the selection for this volume a very simple principle has been followed. It was desired to make the book an agreeable introduction to the pleasures of poetry, and, by confining it to American poetry of the highest order, to give young people in America the most natural acquaintance with literature. These poets are our interpreters. All but one are still living, so that the poetry is contemporaneous and appeals through familiar forms ; as far as possible narrative poems have been chosen, and, in the arrangement of authors, regard has been had to degrees of difficulty, the more involved and subtle forms of poetry following the simpler and more direct. Throughout, the book has been conceived in a spirit which welcomes poetry as a noble delight, not as a grammatical exercise or elocutionary task.

With the same intention the critical apparatus has been treated in a literary rather than in a pedagogical way. The editor has imagined himself reading aloud, and stopping now and then to explain a phrase, to clear an allusion, or to give a suggestion as to similar forms in literature. Since several of the poems are

VI PRE FA CE.

semi - historical in character, the historic basis has been carefully pointed out, and hints have been given for further pursuit of the subjects treated. Words, though obsolete or archaic, are not explained when the dictionary account is sufficient. A brief sketch of the author precedes each section.

It is strongly hoped that the book will be accepted by schools as a contribution to that very important work in which teachers are engaged, of giving to their pupils an interest in the best literature, a love for pure and engaging forms of art. If, with all our drill and practice in reading during the years of school-life, children leave their schools with no taste for good reading, and no familiarity with those higher forms of literature that have grown out of the very life which they are living, it must be questioned whether the time given to reading has been most wisely employed.

August, 1879.

CONTENTS,

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ....

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie The Courtship of Miles Standish The Building of the Ship JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.

BIO&RAPHICAL SKETCH ....

Snow-Bound : A Winter Idyl .

Among the Hills ....

Mabel Martin ....

The Two Rabbis ....

The Gift of Tritemius

The Brother of Mercy

Maud Mullbr ....

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

biographical sketch . . .

The Little People of the Snow OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

biographical sketch ....

The School-Boy ....

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

The Vision of Sir Launfal Under the Willows .

PAOS

, 189 192 219 237

, 250 257

, 262 265

, 267 271

, 277

. 287

. 317

. 332

. 351 viii CONTENTS.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

BIO&RAPHICAL SKETCH 415

The Titmouse 430

Appendix

In the Laboratory with Agassiz . . . 449

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, February 27, 1807. He was a classmate of Hawthorne at Bowdoin College, graduating there in the class of 1825. He began the study of law in the office of his father, Hon. Stephen LongfeUow; but receiving shortly the appointment of professor of modern languages at Bowdoin, he devoted himself after that to literature, and to teaching in connection with literature. Before beginning his work at Bowdoin he increased his qualifications by travel and study in Europe, where he stayed three years. Upon his return he gave his lectures on modern languages and literature at the college, and wrote occasionally for the North American Review and other periodicals. The first volume which he published, exclusive of text-books, was Coplas de Manrique, a translation of Spanish verse, introduced by an Essay on the Moral and Devotional Poetry of Spain. This was issued in 1833, but has not been kept in print as a separate work. The introduction appears as a chapter in Outre-Mer, a reflection of his European life and travel, the first of his prose writings. In 1835 he was invited to succeed Mr. George Ticknor as professor of modern languages and literature at Harvard College, and again went to Europe for preparatory study, giving especial attention to Germany and the Scandinavian countries. He held his professorship until 1854, but continued to live in Cambridge until his death, March 24, 1882, occupying a house known from a former occupant as the Craigie house, and also as Washington's headquarters, that general having so used it while organizing the army that held Boston in siege at the beginning of the Revolution.

Everett, Sparks, and Worcester, the lexicographer, at one time or another lived in this house, and here Longfellow wrote most of his works. In 1839 appeared Hyperion, a Romance, which, with more narrative form than Outre-Mer, like that gave the results of a poet's entrance into the riches of the Old World life. In the same year was published Voices of the Nighty a little volume containing chiefly poems and translations which had been printed separately in periodicals. The Psalm of Life, perhaps the best known of Longfellow's short poems, was in this volume, and here too were The Beleaguered City and Footsteps of Angels. Ballads and other Boems appeared at the close of 1841 and Poems on Slavery in 1842 ; The Spanish Student, a play in three acts, in 1843 ; The Belfry of Bruges and other Poems in 1846 ; Evangeline in 1847 ; Kavanagh, a Tale, in prose, in 1849. Besides the various volumes comprising short poems, the list of Mr. Longfellow's works includes The Golden Legend, The Song of Hiawatha, The Courtship of Miles Standish, Tales of a Wayside Inn, The New England Tragedies, and a translation of Dante's Divina Commedia. Mr. Longfellow's literary life began in his college days, and he wrote poems almost to the day of his death. A classification of his poems and longer works would be an interesting task, and would help to disclose the wide range of his sympathy and taste ; a collection of the metres which he has used would show the versatility of his art, and similar studies would lead one to discover the many countries and ages to which he went for subjects.

It would not be difficult to gather from the volume of Longfellow's poems hints of personal experience, that biography of the heart which is of more worth to us than any record, however full, of external change and adventure. Such hints may be found, for example, in the early lines, To the River Charles, which may be compared with his recent Three Friends of Mine, rv., v. ; m A Gleam of Sunshine, To a Child, The Day is Done, The Fire of Driftwood, designation, The Open Window, The Ladder of St. Augusti7ie, My Lost Youth, The Children's Hour, Weariness, and other poems ; not that we are to take all sentiments and statements made in the first person as the poet's, for often the form of the poem is so far dramatic that the poet is assuming a character not necessarily his own, hut the recurrence of certain strains, joined with personal allusions, helps one to penetrate the slight veil with which the poet, here as elsewhere, half conceals and half reveals himself. The friendly associations of the poet may also be discovered in several poems directly addressed to persons or distinctively alluding to them, and the reader will find it pleasant to construct the companionship of the poet out of such poems as The Herons of Elmwood, To William E, Channing, The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz, To Charles Sumner, the Prelude to Tales of a Wayside Inn, Hawthorne, and other poems. A study of Mr. Longfellow's writings will be found in a paper by the editor of this volume, Men and Letters, published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company.

EVANGELINE: A TALE OF ACADIE.

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

[The country now known as Nova Scotia, and called formerly Acadie by the French, was in the hands of the French and English by turns until the year 1713, when, by the Peace of Utrecht, it was ceded by France to Great Britain, and has ever since remained in the possession of the English. But in 1713 the inhabitants of the peninsula were mostly French farmers and fishermen, living about Minas Basin and on Annapolis River, and the English government exercised only a nominal control over them. It was not till 1749 that the English themselves began to make settlements in the country, and that year they laid the foundations of the town of Halifax. A jealousy soon sprang up between the English and French settlers, which was deepened by the great conflict which was impending between the two mother countries ; for the treaty of peace at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, which confirmed the English title to Nova Scotia, was scarcely more than a truce between the two powers which had been struggling for ascendency during the beginning of the century. The French engaged in a long controversy with the English respecting the boundaries of Acadie, which had been defined by the treaties in somewhat general terms, and intrigues were carried on with the Indians, who were generally in sympathy with the French, for the annoyance of the English settlers. The Acadians were allied to the French by blood and by religion, but they claimed to have the rights of neutrals, and that these rights had been granted to them by previous English officers of the crown. The one point of special dispute was the oath of allegiance demanded of the Acadians by the English. This they refused to take, except in a form modified to excuse them from bearing arms against the French. The demand was repeatedly made, and evaded with constant ingenuity and persistency. Most of the Acadians were probably simpleminded and peaceful people, who desired only to live undisturbed upon their farms ; but there were some restless spirits, especially among the young men, who compromised the reputation of the community, and all were very much under the influence of their priests, some of whom made no secret of their bitter hostility to the English, and of their determination to use every means to be rid of them.

As the English interests grew and the critical relations between the two countries approached open warfare, the question of how to deal with the Acadian problem became the commanding one of the colony. There were some who coveted the rich farms of the Acadians ; there were some who were inspired by religious hatred ; but the prevailing spirit was one of fear for themselves from the near presence of a community which, calling itself neutral, might at any time offer a convenient ground for hostile attack. Yet to require these people to withdraw to Canada or Louisburg would be to strengthen the hands of the French, and make these neutrals determined enemies. The colony finally resolved, without consulting the home government, to remove the Acadians to other parts of North America, distributing them through the colonies in such a way as to preclude any concert amongst the scattered families by which they should return to Acadia. To do this required quick and secret preparations. There were at the service of the EngHsh governor a number of New England troops, brought thither for the capture of the forts lying in the debatable land about the head of the Bay of Fundy. These were under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Winslow, of Massachusetts, a great-grandson of Governor Edward Winslow, of Plymouth, and to this gentleman and Captain Alexander Murray was intrusted the task of removal. They were instructed to use stratagem, if possible, to bring together the various families, but to prevent any from escaping to the woods.

On the 2d of September, 1755, Winslow issued a written order, addressed to the inhabitants of Grand-Pr^, Minas, River Canard, etc., " as well ancient as young men and lads," — a proclamation summoning all the males to attend him in the church at Grand-Pr^ on the 5th instant, to hear a communication which the governor had sent. As there had been negotiations respecting the oath of allegiance, and much discussion as to the withdrawal of the Acadians from the country, though none as to their removal and dispersal, it was understood that this was an important meeting, and upon the day named four hundred and eighteen men and boys assembled in the church. Winslow, attended by his officers and men, caused a guard to be placed round the church, and then announced to the people his majesty's decision that they were to be removed with their families out of the country. The church became at once a guardhouse, and all the prisoners were under strict surveillance. At the same time similar plans had been carried out at Pisiquid under Captain Murray, and less successfully at Chignecto. Meanwhile there were whispers of a rising among the prisoners, and although the transports which had been ordered from Boston had not yet arrived, it was determined to make use of the vessels which had conveyed the troops, and remove the men to these for safer keeping. This was done on the 10th of September, and the men remained on the vessels in the harbor until the arrival of the transports, when these were made use of, and about three thousand souls sent out of the country to North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. In the haste and confusion of sending them off, — a haste which was increased by the anxiety of the officers to be rid of the distasteful business, and a confusion which was greater from the difference of tongues, — manyfamilies were separated, and some at least never came together again.

The story of Evangeline is the story of such a separation. The removal of the Acadians was a blot upon the government of Nova Scotia and upon that of Great Britain, which never disowned the deed, although it was probably done without direct permission or command from England. It proved to be unnecessary, but it must also be remembered that to many men at that time the English power seemed trembling before France, and that the colony at Halifax regarded the act as one of self-preservation.

The authorities for an historical inquiry into this subject are best seen in a volume published by the government of Nova Scotia at Hahfax in 1869, entitled Selections from the Fuhlic Documenis of the Province of Nova Scotia, edited by Thomas B. Akins, D. C. L., Commissioner of Public Records ; and in a manuscript journal kept by Colonel Winslow, now in the cabinet of the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. At the State House in Boston are two volumes of records, entitled French Neutrals, which contain voluminous papers relating to the treatment of the Acadians who were sent to Massachusetts. Probably the work used by the poet in writing Evangeline was An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia, by Thomas C. Haliburton, who is best known as the author of The Clock- Maker, or The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville, a book which, written apparently to prick the Nova Scotians into more enterprise, was for a long while the chief representative of Yankee smartness. Judge Haliburton 's history was pubhshed in 1829. A later history, which takes advantage more freely of historical documents, is A History of Nova Scotia, or Acadie, by Beamish Murdock, Esq., Q. C, Halifax, 1866. Still more recent is a smaller, well-written work, entitled The History of Acadia from its

First Discovery to its Surrender to England by the Treaty of Paris, by James Hannay, St. John, N. B., 1879. W. J. Anderson published a paper in the Transactioiis of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, New Series, part 7, 1870, entitled Evangeline and the Archives of Nova Scotia, in which he examines the poem by the light of the volume of Nova Scotia Archives, edited by T. B. Akins. The sketches of travellers in Nova Scotia, as Acadia, or a Month among the Blue Noses, by F. S. Cozzens, and Baddeck, by C. D. Warner, give the present appearance of the country and inhabitants.

The measure of Evangeline is what is commonly known as English dactylic hexameter. The hexameter is the measure used by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey, and by Virgil in the jEneid, but the difference between the English language and the Latin or Greek is so great, especially when we consider that in English poetry every word must be accented according to its customary pronounciation, while in scanning Greek and Latin verse accent follows the quantity of the vowels, that in applying this term of hexameter to Evangeline it must not be supposed by the reader that he is getting the effect of Greek hexameters. It is the Greek hexameter translated into English use, and some have maintained that the verse of the Uiad is better represented in the English by the trochaic measure of fifteen syllables, of which an excellent illustration is in Tennyson's Locksley Hall ; others have compared the Greek hexameter to the ballad metre of fourteen syllables, used notably by Chapman in his translation of Homer's Iliad. The measure adopted by Mr. Longfellow has never become very popular in English poetry, but has repeatedly been attempted by other poets. The reader will find the subject of hexameters discussed by Matthew Arnold in his lectures On Translating Homer ; by James Spedding in English Hexameters, in his recent volume, Reviews and Discussions, Literary, Folitical and Historical, not relating to

Bacon ; and by John Stuart Blackle in Remarks on English Hexameters, contained in his volume Horoe Helleniece.

The measure lends itself easily to the lingering melancholy which marks the greater part of the poem, and the poet's fine sense of harmony between subject and form is rarely better shown than in this poem. The fall of the verse at the end of the line and the sharp recovery at the beginning of the next will be snares to the reader, who must beware of a jerking style of delivery. The voice naturally seeks a rest in the middle of the line, and this rest, or caesural pause, should be carefully regarded ; a little practice will enable one to acquire that habit of reading the hexameter, which we may liken, roughly, to the climbing of a hill, resting a moment on the summit, and then descending the other side. The charm in reading Evangeline aloud, after a clear understanding of the sense, which is the essential in all good reading, is found in this gentle labor of the former half of the line, and gentle acceleration of the latter half.]

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,

Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight.

Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,

1. A primeval forest is, strictly speaking, one which has never been disturbed by the axe.

3. Druids were priests of the Celtic inhabitants of ancient Gaul and Britain. The name was probably of Celtic origin, but its form may have been determined by the Greek word drils, an oak, since their places of worship were consecrated groves of oak. Perhaps the choice of the image was governed by the analogy of a religion and tribe that were to disappear before a stronger power.

Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.

Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean 5

Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.

This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it

Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman ?

Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers, —

Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, 10

Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven ?

Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed !

Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October

Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean.

Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pre. 15

Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,

4. A poetical description of an ancient harper will be found in the Introduction to the Lay of the Last 3Iinstrel, by Sir Walter Scott.

8. Observe how the tragedy of the story is anticipated by this picture of the startled roe.

Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's

devotion, List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines

of the forest ; List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy.

I. In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of

Minas, 20

Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pre Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched

to the eastward, Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks

without number.

Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with

labor incessant,

19. In the earliest records Acadie is called Cadie ; it afterwards was called Arcadia, Accadia, or L'Acadie. The name is probably a French adaptation of a word common among the Micmac Indians living there, signifying place or region, and used as an affix to other words as indicating the place where various things, as cranberries, eels, seals, were found in abundance. The French turned this Indian term into Cadie or Acadie ; the English into Quoddy, in which form it remains when applied to the Quoddy Indians, to Quoddy Head, the last point of the United States next to Acadia, and in the compound Passamaquoddy, or Pollock-Ground.

21. Compare, for effect, the first line of Goldsmith's The Traveller. Grand-Prd will be found on the map as part of the township of Horton.

24. The people of Acadia are mainly the descendants of the colonists who were brought out to La Have and Port Royal by Isaac de Razilly and Charnisay between the years 1633 and 1638.

Shut out the turbulent tides ; but at stated seasons the

flood-gates 25

Opened and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er

the meadows.

West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards

and cornfields Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain ; and away

to the northward Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the

mountains Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists fi;om the mighty

Atlantic 30

Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station descended.

There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian

village.

Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oak and

of hemlock, Such as the peasants of Normandy built in the reign

of the Henries.

These colonists came from Rochelle, Saintonge, and Poitou, so that they were drav/n from a very limited area on the west coast of France, covered by the modern departments of Vendue and Charente Infdrieure. This circumstance had some influence on their mode of settling the lands of Acadia, for they came from a country of marshes, where the sea was kept out by artificial dikes, and they found in Acadia similar marshes, which they dealt with in the same way that they had been accustomed to practise in France. Hannay's History of Acadia, pp. 282, 283. An excellent account of dikes and the flooding of lowlands, as practised in Holland, may be found in A Farmer'' s Vacation, by George E. Waring, Jr.

29. Blomidon is a mountainous headland of red sandstone, surmounted by a perpendicular wall of basaltic trap, the whole about four hundred feet in height, at the entrance of the Basin of Minas.

Thatched were the roofs, with dormer-windows ; and gables projecting 35

Over the basement below protected and shaded the doorway.

There in the tranquil evenings of summer, when brightly the sunset

Lighted the village street, and gilded the vanes on the chimneys.

Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and in kirtles

Scarlet and blue and green, with distaffs spinning the golden 40

Flax for the gossiping looms, whose noisy shuttles within doors

Mingled their sound with the whir of the wheels and the songs of the maidens.

Solemnly down the street came the parish priest, and the children

Paused in their play to kiss the hand he extended to bless them.

Reverend walked he among them ; and up rose matrons and maidens, 45

Hailing his slow approach with words of affectionate welcome.

Then came the laborers home from the field, and serenely the sun sank

36. The characteristics of a Normandy village may be further learned by reference to a pleasant little sketch-book, published a few years since, called Normandy Picturesque, by Henry Blackburn, and to Through Normandy, by Katharine S. Macquoid.

39. The term kirtle was sometimes applied to the jacket only, sometimes to the train or upper petticoat attached to it. A full kirtle was always both ; a half kirtle was a term applied to either. A man's jacket was sometimes called a kirtle ; here the reference is apparently to the full kirtle worn by women.

Down to his rest, and twilight prevailed. Anon from

the belfry Softly the Angelus sounded, and over the roofs of the

village Columns of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense

ascending, so

Rose from a hundred hearths, the homes of peace and

contentment.

Thus dwelt together in love these simple Acadian

farmers, — Dwelt in the love of God and of man. Alike were

they free from Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice

of republics.

Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their

windows ; 55

But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts

of the owners ; There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in

abundance.

Somewhat apart from the village, and nearer the

Basin of Minas, Benedict Bellefontaine, the wealthiest farmer of

Grand-Pre, Dwelt on his goodly acres ; and with him, directing

his household, eo

Gentle Evangeline lived, his child, and the pride of

the village.

49. A ngelus Domini is the full name given to the hell which, at morning, noon, and night, called the people to prayer, in commemoration of the visit of the angel of the Lord to the Virgin Mary. It was introduced into France in its modern form in the sixteenth century.

Stalworth and stately in form was tbe man of seventy

winters ; Hearty and hale was he, an oak that is covered with

snow-flakes ; White as the snow were his locks, and his cheeks as

brown as the oak-leaves.

Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen summers ; 65 Black were her eyes as the berry that grows on the

thorn by the wayside.

Black, yet how softly they gleamed beneath the brown

shade of her tresses !

Sweet was her breath as the breath of kine that feed