(1807–1882)
Longfellow was born at Portland, Maine, a lineal descendant of "Priscilla, the Puritan Maiden." He was educated at Bowdoin College, in which he was subsequently offered a professorship. To prepare himself for the position he traveled extensively in Europe, acquainting himself with its languages and institutions.
After some years at Bowdoin he was appointed to the chair of modern languages and literature at Harvard. He now settled down at Cambridge, which remained his home till the day of his death, though he made several trips to Europe.
After several ineffectual essays at authorship, he won recognition with his "Voices of the Night." Some years later appeared a second collection of poems, "Poems of Slavery," which, with Whittier's poems and Mrs. Stowe's works, were largely instrumental in stirring up New England to the evils of slave-holding. Finally, in 1847, appeared the greatest of all his works, "Evangeline." It is also remarkable as introducing the dactylic hexameter of the ancients, ever since popular in America.
In his choice of subjects Longfellow oscillated between America and Europe, and, although he doubtless was not conscious of the fact, his American poems were easily best; especially "Hiawatha" (based on a Finnish epic, the "Kalevala"), "The Courtship of Miles Standish," and the "Talesof a Wayside Inn,"—all three of which may vie with "Evangeline" for excellence. He was less successful with his European poems, though "The Golden Legend," and his translation of the "Divine Comedy" are good.
Longfellow made several attempts at writing prose fiction, notably in "Hyperion" and "Kavanaugh," but none of his prose works proved to be of any permanent value.
Longfellow was neither original nor deep. He attempts to discover no new secrets in nature. But, like Scott, he was a lover of the heroic, of the spirit of self-sacrifice. His poems, whatever their form, are ever subjective, have ever a moral to teach. And so, like Scott, he has ever been and ever will be popular. In England and Canada he is said to be even more popular than Tennyson.
Of all American authors, Longfellow was the model Christian; noted for his superabundant sympathy, love, and charity. It is recorded that when Poe lashed him with his merciless criticism, he was delivering enthusiastic discourses on Poe's poetry to his classes.
THE MAN
1. What was Longfellow's origin; his education?
2. In what respect does his life resemble that of Irving?
3. His profession was literature. What chair did he occupy, and in what colleges?
4. What interest, if any, did Longfellow take in public affairs?
5. Give the salient points in his character.
6. Was his foreign experience as significant as that of Irving, Hawthorne, and Lowell?
STYLE AND WORKS
1. With what collection of poems did Longfellow first win public notice?
2. What work links his name with those of Whittier and Harriet Beecher Stowe?
3. Name his best poems.
4. In which is the dactylic hexameter popularized?
5. From what two sources was his "Hiawatha" derived?
6. How is Longfellow's name connected with that of Dante?
7. What are the merits of his style; the defects?
8. Longfellow is easily the most popular American poet. Why?
9. What British poet does he most resemble in his shorter poems? In what respects?
10. What can you say as to his popularity abroad?
FROM "EVANGELINE"
1. Who were the Druids, and why are they appropriately associated with the "forest primeval"?
2. What is the present name of the territory once called Acadie?
3. What lines express the central thought underlying the tale?
4. What is there peculiarly appropriate in the words "turbulent tides"? (See geography on Bay of Fundy, etc.)
5. Select a few of the most beautiful similes or metaphors which illustrate the poet's power of imagination.
6. Is the cruelty of the English exaggerated?
7. During what period of history did this event occur?
8. What picture of Acadian life pleases you most?
9. Compare this narrative style with that of the narrative poems of Scott, Tennyson, Macaulay, and Homer.
FOR REFERENCE
"Life of Longfellow."—Longfellow (Samuel).
"Henry W. Longfellow, Life, Works, Friendships."—Austin.
"Henry Wadsworth Longfellow."—Carpenter.
"Four American Poets."—Cody.
"Longfellow's Country."—Clarke.
"Authors and Friends."—Fields.
"Old Cambridge."—Higginson.
"Longfellow."—Norton.
(1807–1892)
Whittier was born at Haverhill, Mass., the son of a poor Quaker farmer. His boyhood was spent at work on his father's farm and he had few opportunities for schooling. But he showed his talent for verse at an early age, and in this manner attracted the interest and friendship of William Lloyd Garrison. Determined to obtain an education, he learned the trade of making slippers, and with this as a means of support was able to attend two years at Haverhill Academy.
For some years after this he led a shifting life, sometimes editing one of a number of periodicals with which he was successively connected, and at other times working the ancestral farm. In 1836 the farm was sold and the Whittiers removed to Amesbury, destined to remain his home until his death in 1892, fifty-six years after.
Whittier was a Quaker, and, like most of that sect, a zealous champion of abolition. To that cause he sacrificed ambition and love; and, like most of the early abolitionists, he suffered for his faith. While editor of the "Pennsylvania Freeman," at Philadelphia, his printing plant was sacked and burned by the mob.
Whittier never married. His sister Elizabeth, who became his lifelong companion, and whose verse is preserved with his own, shared likewise in the war he made on slavery.
His poems may be divided into two classes: those descriptive of rural life and scenery, among which the best are "Snow Bound," his masterpiece, "The Tent on the Beach," "Maud Muller," and "Among the Hills"; and his polemics against slavery, including "Voices of Freedom," "Barbara Frietchie," and "The Slaves of Martinique." He also collaborated with Lucy Larcom in the compilation of "Child Life," "Child Life in Prose," and "Songs of Three Centuries."
Poetry was no fine art with him, and his verse seldom rises above the ballad; but his style is characterized by great simplicity, sincerity, directness, and fervor. The elementsof passion and sturdier humor are lacking, but he was the master-painter of New England scenery, as evidenced in his "Snow Bound," the best verse of that kind since "The Deserted Village," and "The Cotter's Saturday Night." Rustic winter scenes have never been more beautifully described.
THE MAN
1. From what rank in life did Whittier come?
2. What can you say of his childhood?
3. How would his education compare with that of most of the authors of his day?
4. The formation of what friendship had a lasting effect on his life?
5. What profession did he enter in common with many other American authors?
6. Of what faith was he an adherent?
7. At what place did he live during the greater part of his life?
8. Explain the part taken by him in political matters.
9. What can you tell of his sister Elizabeth?
10. Why is he called "The Quaker Poet," and "The Amesbury Sage"?
STYLE AND WORKS
1. Wherein does his style resemble that of Mrs. Browning?
2. What great poems of Burns and Whittier are properly classed together, and why?
3. Name four poems descriptive of New England life and scenery.
4. What are his best poems on slavery?
5. In what field do he and Longfellow meet? VIII, 222.
6. State what shows his great interest in children.
7. What form did his verse generally take?
8. How does he compare as to form with Poe and Bryant?
9. Why is he esteemed the New England poetpar excellence?
10. In the description of what particular scenes does he excel?
11. Give the elements of strength in his style.
"MAUD MULLER"
1. What is meant by the "mock-bird" in the third couplet? Are these mocking birds in New England?
2. Of what class is Maud with her "vague unrest" a type?
3. Is city life still as attractive to country girls and boys?
4. Is the Judge's aimless talk well worked out by the poet?
5. Had Maud and the Judge married, would they have been happier in the end?
6. Have lawyers changed with the flight of years?
7. Is it true that "humming" is a telltale habit?
8. What do you understand by "spinnet," "astral," and "chimney lug"?
9. Point out a couplet which has passed into a proverb.
10. What "sweet hope" is intended in the next to the last stanza?
FOR REFERENCE
"Life of John Greenleaf Whittier" ("Great Writers Series").—Linton.
"John Greenleaf Whittier" ("American Men of letters").—Carpenter.
"Whittier-Land."—Pickard.
"Reminiscences of Whittier's life at Oak Knoll."—Woodman.
"Biographic Clinics."—Gould.
"Authors and Friends."—Fields.
"John Greenleaf Whittier" ("English Men of Letters").—Higginson.
(1819–1891)
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, the son of a Unitarian minister, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the home of so many of our eminent authors. Educated at Harvard University, where he also prepared for the practice of law, he entered that profession, but finding it little to his taste quicklyabandoned it for literature. In 1855 he succeeded Longfellow in the chair of modern languages at Harvard, a position which he held for the following twenty-two years. During this period he was for a time editor of theAtlantic Monthly, and theNorth American Review. In 1877 he was appointed minister to Spain, and in 1880 was transferred to the Court of St. James, where he remained five years. He died in 1891 at the age of seventy-two years.
Lowell was a many-sided character, eminent as a poet, an essayist, a critic, and a public speaker. His friends included all the New England writers of his day and many English authors, who for the first time appreciated America's intellectual standing. His poetry is very uneven; this is due largely to the fact that he wrote principally for immediate effect, and, while his poems sparkle with wit and humor, they very commonly lack polish and form. This criticism would hardly apply to "The Vision of Sir Launfal," his best poem, or to the "Commemoration Ode."
Lowell is probably better known as an essayist and critic, his best works in this line being "Fireside Travels," "My Study Windows," and "Among my Books." He was the leading American critic of his time.
In closing, two anomalous works should be mentioned. His "Biglow Papers" are two series of satirical poems, ordinary verse rather than actual poetry, but very fine as satire. The former series, published in 1846, was directed against the Mexican war, and the latter, published during the Civil War, against the slavery party. They served to popularize the 'Yankee dialect,' here used for the first time.
The second is the "Fable for Critics," a criticism in verse of his leading contemporaries, like the "Biglow Papers," full of wit and striking puns and keenly critical, though lacking in true poetic value.
THE MAN
1. What similarity between Lowell's antecedents and those of Emerson?
2. How does his first choice of a profession resemble that of Bryant and Irving?
3. Whom did he succeed at Harvard and what chair did he fill in that institution?
4. Give his connection with journalism.
5. What diplomatic missions did he fill, and what other famous American authors had filled the same positions?
6. Did he, like Irving, Prescott, and Hawthorne, make any great use of his European experience for literary purposes?
7. What impression did he make in England?
STYLE AND WORKS
1. Mention seven different lines along which Lowell directed his energies.
2. What is the principal defect in his style?
3. What are his strong points?
4. Mention his three best poems. His three best collections of essays.
5. Against what evil were the "Biglow Papers" directed?
6. What new element did they bring into American literature?
7. Name a favorite poem in the Yankee dialect.
8. Why is some of his verse scarcely to be considered poetry?
FROM "THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL"
1. Compare "druid wood" with the opening lines of Longfellow's "Evangeline," VIII, 231, and explain the allusion.
2. Point out the best couplet in the extract.
3. What beautiful metaphor is near the close of the poem?
4. What analogy may we draw between the tide and the year-cycle?
5. What is the purpose of the first stanza?
6. Explain the line "Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold," and find examples in life to verify it.
7. What are the signs of summer?
8. How does this season of the year affect the human heart?
9. Compare the second stanza with the theme and the style of Wordsworth's "Ode on Immortality," XII, 324.
FOR REFERENCE
"Four Famous American Writers."—Cody.
"James Russell Lowell."—Scudder.
"American Prose Masters."—Brownell.
"James Russell Lowell."—Curtis.
"Essays in London and Elsewhere."—James.
"Nature Knowledge in Modern Poetry."—Mackie.
"Stelligeri, and other Essays."—Wendell.
(1809–1894)
The "genial Autocrat" was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the son of a Congregational minister. After graduating at Harvard, he began the study of law, but, like so many other authors, not finding it to his taste, changed to medicine. After finishing his studies in Paris he returned to America, and opened office in Boston. Despite his fondness for literature, he gained a fair practice.
In 1847, however, he was elected Professor of Anatomy in Harvard University, a position he held for thirty-five years. His duties were far from arduous, so that like Emerson, he was able to devote much of his time to lecturing and poetry.
The founding ofThe Atlantic Monthlywas an important event in his life. He was engaged to write for it, and the result was his greatest work, "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," a series of talks on many subjects, interspersed with some poems. Of the same nature are "The Professor at the Breakfast Table," "The Poet at the Breakfast Table," and "Over the Teacups," written at intervals of many years. They are distinguished by careless grace and irrepressible humor. The "Autocrat" is the most original and brilliant, and the series became successively more serious as the doctor grew older.
These are the works by which he will be remembered, but, like Lowell, he was a man of many parts, and chose to workin several fields. He was eminent as a physician, lecturer, poet, and essayist, as we have seen, and he even tried his hand at fiction. "The Guardian Angel," his best novel, "Elsie Venner," and "A Mortal Antipathy," have been called 'medicated novels,' dealing as they do with questions of heredity and prenatal influence.
He also appeared in the rôle of biographer, with the lives of his friends, Motley and Emerson.
Holmes was a lovable man, genial, brilliant, witty, and yet deeply in earnest for all that. He was a thoroughly religious man and a firm believer in immortality, holding his life to be merely the avenue or vestibule to a greater beyond. He was, however, conservative, and took little part in the abolitionist movement which so agitated his brethren.
He died at the advanced age of eighty-five, having outlived all his companions in the field of letters.
THE MAN
1. Give a brief account of Holmes's birth and antecedents.
2. Where was he educated, and on what lines?
3. What connection did he subsequently form with Harvard University?
4. In what respect does his life resemble that of Emerson, and how does he resemble Lowell?
5. Mention several different fields in which he achieved distinction.
6. Give a summary of his character.
7. According to Holmes, what is it that makes life worth living?
STYLE AND WORKS
1. Which is esteemed to be Holmes's best work?
2. Enumerate the four books of the Autocrat series.
3. What is the general character of these books?
4. What progressive difference is noted in the successive books of the series?
5. Give the main elements of his style.
6. Name three novels written by Holmes.
7. For what biographies are we indebted to him?
8. As a humorist compare him with Lowell, VIII, 255; with Irving, VII, 271; with Lamb, VIII, 73, 86.
FROM "THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE"
1. Is there a moral to the poem "The Wonderful One-hoss-shay"? If so, what is it?
2. When is slang permissible, according to Holmes?
3. To whom does the title of this selection refer?
4. Account for the sudden changes of topic and their diversity of character.
5. What is the effect of the quotation connected with the poem "Contentment"?
6. Is the intermingling of poetry and prose common? How is it peculiarly suitable here?
7. What are Holmes's views concerning the literary talent of the United States?
8. If the works of an author portray his character, how would you classify Oliver Wendell Holmes as a man?
FOR REFERENCE
"Holmes: The Autocrat and his Fellow Boarders."—Crothers.
"Authors and Friends."—Fields.
"Old Cambridge" ("National Studies in American Letters").—Higginson.
"The Poet Among the Hills."—Smith.
(1000B.C.)
The ancient Greek tradition assigned the authorship of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" to the blind bard, Homer, of whose origin and personality nothing is known, although seven cities claimed to be his birthplace. More than a century of the closest study and research, including the investigation of ancient Troy, has shown that these two immortal epic poems are hardly to be called the work of one man, but that they have been compiled and unified by one poet from several shorter works, dealing with incidents leading to the fall of Troy and the wanderings of Odysseus.
The site of Troy, close to the entrance to the Dardanelles, has been occupied by nine cities, excavations showing their remains resting in distinct layers, five of which belong to the pre-Homeric times, the sixth being the city of the "Iliad," sacked in the year 1184B.C.Its fall was due, originally, to a dispute among the gods as to which was the fairest, Hera, the wife of Zeus, goddess of earthly dominion, Athene, goddess of wisdom, or Aphrodite, goddess of love. Paris, the son of Priam, king of Troy, was chosen judge and awarded the prize to Aphrodite, tempted by her offer of the most beautiful woman in the world for his wife and rejecting the bribes of empire and of wisdom which were offered by the others.
Helen, the wife of Menelaus, whose beauty was acclaimed as divine, accordingly was abducted by Paris. Menelaus and his brother, both powerful kings in Greece, collected an army with the aid of several other Greek princes and set sail at once for Troy, which they besieged in vain for nine years and finally captured by the stratagem of the Trojan horse. This was a huge wooden figure of a horse, in which certain of the Greek leaders lay hid while the rest sailed away, apparently giving up the siege and leaving the horse as an offering to the gods. The Trojans, rejoicing, dragged the monster within their walls, broken down to admit it, and at nightfall the concealed Greeks came out and opened the gates to the rest of their army, which had landed again under cover of darkness.
Helen's life was spared, as she seems to have been regarded as a being of another world, guiltless of wrong intent, driven by fate into these misfortunes. The tragedies that befell upon the return of Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus form the subject of the great dramas of Æschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles.
The "Iliad" narrates events in the course of the siege, in which Achilles is the Greek hero, angered by Agamemnon and refusing to lead the troops to battle, until roused by the death of his friend Patroclus he rushes to the fray and slays Hector, the Trojan prince and leader, with whose funeral rites the poem closes.
The fall of Troy is not treated by Homer; in fact it did not receive the consideration due its dramatic possibilities until a thousand years later, when Vergil, the Roman poet, described it in his "Æneid." This may be explained by the fact that the Greeks desired to hear the tale of their heroism and their leader's triumph rather than the sorrows of the enemy, while the Roman emperor Augustus, at whose request Vergil composed the "Æneid," wished to glorify Rome by tracing her origin back to the son of the Trojan prince, Æneas, who fled to Italy after Troy's downfall.
The "Odyssey" recounts the wanderings of the Greek prince, Odysseus, detained by various casualties on his way home round the south of Greece to Ithaca, his island home in the Adriatic, and also deals with his vengeance on the suitors whom he found endeavoring to win the hand of his faithful wife Penelope.
The "Iliad," as a piece of literature, seems to belong to a somewhat earlier day than the "Odyssey." The latter is more unified in construction, and shows greater knowledge of travel and a higher religious and social standard.
The selections of the former are from the two great metrical translations of Pope and of Chapman. Pope's work (1715) is in the full flower of the Age of Classicism, and is thoroughly characteristic of that period. Chapman's (1611), less polished, belongs to the late Renaissance, whose rugged, adventurous spirit was far nearer that of the Homeric age and is preferred by many on this account.
The prose translation, from which the passages of the "Odyssey" are taken, is better suited to present-day taste, trained by prose fiction rather than verse. It retains as far as has ever been done the Greek feeling and ideas, with all its richness of imagery and none of the affectation which we feel to-day in lengthy verse.
THE MAN AND THE AGE
1. Who was Homer?
2. What is the history of Troy?
3. What was the value of its geographical situation in those days? (Consult an atlas, classical, if possible.)
4. What was the character of social conditions in those days? See V, 432.
5. Apart from scientific progress, what distinctions can you make between this era and that of Homer?
6. The fall and sack of Troy is told by whom, in what epic? Explain why Homer did not deal with this dramatic episode.
STYLE AND WORKS
1. Why has Achilles' fame lasted two thousand years? III, 266.
2. What is one of Homer's leading merits? VIII, 356.
3. What was Alexander the Great's opinion of the "Iliad"? IX, 8.
4. Which do you prefer, the prose or the verse translation? Why?
5. In what respects are the verse translations molded by the spirit of the periods when they were made?
6. How is it that the Renaissance, when Chapman made his translation, was more like the Homeric period than the twentieth century?
FROM THE "ODYSSEY"
1. What phrases suggest the Greek love of beauty?
2. Do you conclude that the poet was observant of life in times of peace as well as in times of war?
3. Had he ever lived on a farm? What makes you think so?
4. How did Odysseus treat the minstrel? Was the writer himself probably just such a bard?
5. Compare Circe's palace and the home of Odysseus; what was the probable status of the hero, king or chieftain? Why?
6. Note the use of sulphur for purifying the house. What does this show you regarding early Greek civilization?
7. Outline the social and political conditions of life in the Homeric period as shown in the "Odyssey."
FOR REFERENCE
The "Iliad," translated byLang,Leaf, andMyers.
The "Odyssey," translated byButcherandLang.
"Homer and his Age."—Lang.
"The World of Homer."—Lang.
"On Translating Homer."—Arnold.
"Ethics of the Heroic Age."—Gladstone.
"Life in the Homeric Age."—Seymour.