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United States (United States) (search for this): chapter 7
charm to be found in them alone. A common ground for criticism on Longfellow's poetry lay in the simplicity which made it then, and has made it ever since, so near to the popular heart. It is possible that this simplicity was the precise contribution needed in that early and formative period of American letters. Literature in a new country naturally tends to the florid, as had been shown by the novels of Charles Brockden Brown, or even by so severe a work as Bancroft's History of the United States. In poetry, Poe was to give only too wide a prestige to the same tendency. In subsequent years Longfellow published many volumes of verse, in which his experiments with English hexameter are now, perhaps, most famous. There is no doubt that the reading public at large has confirmed the opinion of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes: Of the longer poems of our chief singer, I should not hesitate to select Evangeline as the masterpiece, and I think the general verdict of opinion would confirm my
Puritan (Pennsylvania, United States) (search for this): chapter 7
the world. Oliver Wendell Holmes. Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Aug. 29, 1809. His father was an Orthodox Congregational clergyman, who stuck to his Calvinistic colors throughout the period which saw Unitarianism firmly established in Cambridge and Boston. The Unitarian movement is interesting to the student of literature, as one of the signs of the intellectual ripening which made it possible for a powerful literature to spring from the hitherto unpromising soil of Puritan New England. Dr. Holmes himself early became a Unitarian, in the same spirit of fidelity to his belief which had held his father to the older faith. On his graduation from Harvard in 1829, Holmes, like so many other men of literary tastes at that time, turned first toward the bar. After studying for a year and a half, however, he decided that the law was not for him. As the ministry was uncongenial, only one of the three learned professions then considered respectable remained open to him.
Portland (Maine, United States) (search for this): chapter 7
ng to Shakespeare's estimate of old age, -honor, love, obedience, troops of friends. Except for two great domestic bereavements, his life would have been one of absolutely unbroken sunshine; in his whole career he never encountered any serious rebuff, while such were his personal modesty and kindliness that no one could long regard him with envy or antagonism. Among all the sons of song there has rarely been such an instance of unbroken and unstained success. Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, Feb. 27, 1807. Through the Wadsworths and the Bartletts, the poet could trace his descent to at least four of the Mayflower pilgrims, including Elder Brewster and Captain John Alden. His boyhood showed nothing of the unruliness which people commonly associate with the idea of genius; indeed, the quiet sanity of his whole career was a refutation of that idle theory. He was a painstaking student, and made a very creditable record at Bowdoin College, where he had Nathaniel Hawthorne f
Europe (search for this): chapter 7
s, an epoch-making book. The curious fact, however, remains, that at the very time when the author was at work upon Hyperion, his mind was undergoing a reaction toward the simpler treatment of more strictly American subjects. It must be remembered that Longfellow came forward at a time when cultivated Americans were wasting a great deal of sympathy on themselves. It was the general impression that the soil was barren, that the past offered no material, and that American authors must be European or die. Yet Longfellow's few notable predecessors had already made themselves heard by disregarding this tradition and taking what they found on the spot. Charles Brockden Brown, though his style smacked of the period, found his themes among the American Indians and in the scenes of the yellow fever in Philadelphia. It was not Irving who invested the Hudson with romance, but the Hudson that inspired Irving. Longfellow's first book of original verse, Voices of the night, containing suc
Mount Auburn (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 7
to Watertown. Hunters, trappers, Indians, pioneers, farmers, had all traveled on that road, going westward; and the hastily gathered and embattled farmers marched down it, going eastward, from Cambridge Common to the fight at Bunker Hill. It led through what is now Kirkland Street, passing the house where Holmes was born, through Brattle Street, past Longfellow's house, through Elmwood Avenue and Mt. Auburn Street, past the house where Lowell was born and died. It then passed on beyond Mt. Auburn to the original village of Watertown, now marked by a deserted burial-ground only — on whose crumbling stones the curious schoolboy still notices such quaint inscriptions as that of Mr. John Bailey, minister of the gospel, a pious and painfull preacher, or of his wife described as one who was good betimes and best at last, went off singing and left us weeping, and who walked with God until translated. It is a matter of interest to recall the fact that the three poets who have been mentio
Watertown (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 7
and the house of Longfellow, always hospitable, was its headquarters. The path from Charlestown. The literary associations of Cambridge all cluster around a single ancient road, called in the earliest records The path from Charlestown to Watertown. Hunters, trappers, Indians, pioneers, farmers, had all traveled on that road, going westward; and the hastily gathered and embattled farmers marched down it, going eastward, from Cambridge Common to the fight at Bunker Hill. It led through wsing the house where Holmes was born, through Brattle Street, past Longfellow's house, through Elmwood Avenue and Mt. Auburn Street, past the house where Lowell was born and died. It then passed on beyond Mt. Auburn to the original village of Watertown, now marked by a deserted burial-ground only — on whose crumbling stones the curious schoolboy still notices such quaint inscriptions as that of Mr. John Bailey, minister of the gospel, a pious and painfull preacher, or of his wife described as
New England (United States) (search for this): chapter 7
h a function. The more exclusive type of life he had studied in New England history, -none better,--but what real awe did it impose on him wfore the period had arrived when, in Miss Sedgwick's phrase, the New England Goddess of Health held out flannel underclothing to everybody. here. Let us admit that, for better or worse, the literature of New England has been the wholesome product of a simple and healthy way of literature to spring from the hitherto unpromising soil of Puritan New England. Dr. Holmes himself early became a Unitarian, in the same spiritder the same title had appeared twenty-five years earlier in the New England magazine. They had not attracted much attention, and were, as aw. More than for America, perhaps, he stood for Boston, and for New England Brahminism. That was not the final type of Americanism, but it ttle criticism written in English. The special service of the New England literature of the middle of the nineteenth century was to achiev
Milton, Mass. (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 7
What makes the matter worse is that Lowell charges the sin of wearisomeness upon both Masson and Milton himself, and yet the keen Fitz-Gerald selects one sentence of Lowell's in this very essay as an illustration of that same sin. Lowell says of Milton's prose tracts:-- Yet it must be confessed that, with the single exception of the Areopagitica, Milton's tracts are wearisome reading, and going through them is like a long sea voyage whose monotony is more than compensated for the moment bMilton's tracts are wearisome reading, and going through them is like a long sea voyage whose monotony is more than compensated for the moment by a stripe of phosphorescence leaping before you in a drift of star-sown snow, coiling away behind in winking disks of silver, as if the conscious element were giving out all the moonlight it had garnered in its loyal depths since first it gazed upon its pallid regent. The criticism on Lowell comes with force from FitzGerald, who always cultivated condensation, and it also recalls the remark of Walter Pater, that the true artist may be best recognized by his skill in omission. Apart from his
Lowell (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 7
e spectator seem a little remote, by comparison, from the more eager questions of their day. Yet Lowell's best work was done in a field of pure letters toward the cultivation of which America had befoHis criticism of contemporaries cannot, for the most part, be greatly praised. In the period of Lowell's literary bringing — up the traditions of the English Christopher North had reached over to Amerfully with these tactics, and Lowell in Cambridge was only too ready to follow his example. In Lowell's Fable for critics you find the beginning of all this: in his prose you will find an essay on Pmeness upon both Masson and Milton himself, and yet the keen Fitz-Gerald selects one sentence of Lowell's in this very essay as an illustration of that same sin. Lowell says of Milton's prose tracts:-t had garnered in its loyal depths since first it gazed upon its pallid regent. The criticism on Lowell comes with force from FitzGerald, who always cultivated condensation, and it also recalls the re
Huguenot (Georgia, United States) (search for this): chapter 7
life he had studied in New England history, -none better,--but what real awe did it impose on him who had learned at his mother's knee to seek the wilderness with William Penn or to ride through howling mobs with Barclay of Ury? The Quaker tradition, after all, had a Brahminism of its own which Beacon Street in Boston could not rear or Harvard College teach. John Greenleaf Whittier was born in Haverhill, Mass., on Dec. 17, 1807. His earliest American ancestor, Thomas Whittier, was of Huguenot stock, and not, like his descendants, a Quaker, though a defender of Quakers. Upon the farm and in the homestead inherited from this ancestor, Whittier passed his boyhood. He was as tall as most of his family, but not so strong. He took his full share of the farm duties; he had to face the winter weather in what we should call scanty clothing: it was before the period had arrived when, in Miss Sedgwick's phrase, the New England Goddess of Health held out flannel underclothing to everybod
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