Chapter Chapter 5 of Index by Simonds History of American Literature

Skill in Narrative.

It is as a writer of narrative poems that Longfellow attains his chief distinction. No other American poet compares with him in this field. Not only the three long poems which deal with themes of national interest, but also the twenty-two tales of the Wayside Inn series and the numerous ballads like The Skeleton in Armor, The Wreck of the Hesperus, King Witlaf's Drinking-Horn, and The Discoverer of the North Cape must be taken in account. Not all are of equal merit; The Tales of a Wayside Inn¹ attain a varying degree of success, but this body of narrative poems as a whole proves the poet to have been a master of the story-telling art.

Lyric and Dramatic Poems.

As a lyric poet, Longfellow ranks with the best. Many of his poems are songs. We think at once of The Rainy Day, The Bridge, The Day is Done, Curfew, Stars of the Summer Night, Resignation, Sandalphon, The Children, The Children's Hour, and many more. With the sonnet, too, Longfellow was eminently successful; those addressed to Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Keats are among his best. The poetical dramas are inferior as a group to the lyric and narrative poems. In The Spanish Student and The Golden Legend his imagination is freer and stronger than in the other dramas, and the dramatic poem, Michael Angelo, shows the poet's creative power in its highest development.

Translations.

Longfellow's intimate acquaintance with the literatures of Europe and the influence of professional study are shown in the large number of facile translations from Scandinavian, German, French, Italian, and Spanish poets. They are marked by insight, sympathy, and felicity of interpretation; and form no unimportant portion of his work. It is unfair and ill-considered to cite these productions as proof of the poet's lack of originality -- as is sometimes done; the translator of The Castle by the Sea and The Song of the Silent Land is a poetical benefactor indeed.

Personality.

It is not altogether to his varied and rich accomplishment in verse that Longfellow's place in the affection of all Americans is due; it was the charm of his personality that confirmed it. He appeared to be one among his countrymen, not above them. Calm in spirit, gentle in utterance, benignant, modest, the people saw in him the embodiment of the beautiful ideal he taught. They admired him as a poet, they trusted and revered him as a man; they accepted him as a teacher; they crowned him poet laureate of the home.

To English readers, also, he became endeared. In 1884, a bust of Longfellow was placed with appropriate honors in the Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. It was the first time that an American man of letters had been commemorated in this place of high memorial. We have seen that the poetry of Poe found great favor among the Latin peoples of Europe; Longfellow's poems have enjoyed as wide if not wider popularity abroad. There is an anecdote which gives a remarkable illustration of this fact. It is said that on a French steamer sailing from Constantinople to Marseilles, a Russian, an Englishman, a Scotchman, a Frenchman, a Greek, and an American vied with one another in quotations from our poet.¹ In America, certainly, Longfellow is still the poet of the people. It is an interesting fact that in the great printing establishment of Longfellow's publishers at Cambridge, there is always some edition of the poet in the press. His poems are printing continuously every working day in the year.

Suggestions for Reading.

Of the prose works of Longfellow, Hyperion will be found most interesting. Selections from the poems should include representative compositions in the various groups described in the text. The poetry of Longfellow is so familiar that particular directions are unnecessary. Houghton Mifflin Company publish the only complete editions of Longfellow's Works. The Cambridge Edition of the poems, in one volume,