...sudden impulse to write poetry, and he produced, softly excited, I know not why, . From that December morning in 1838 until his death in 1882 he was Longfellow the Poet. His outward life, like Hawthorne 's, was barren of dramatic incident, save the one tragic accident by which his second wife, the mother of his children, perished before his eyes in 1861. He bore the calamity with the quiet courage ...