Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/34

of his liberal disposition, and to meet the multitude of appeals for help that came to him from the poor and suffering, who, though they might be remote and unknown to him, felt confident of his sym- pathy. The general character of these years and of their influence on him is reflected in his work. His genius found in them the moment of its fullest expansion and happiest inspiration. In the year of his marriage "The Spanish Student" was published in a volume. It had been mainly written three years before, and was first printed in "Graham's Magazine" in 1842. In 1846 "The Belfry of Bruges and other Poems" appeared; among the "other Po- ems" were "The Old Clock on the Stairs" and "The Arsenal at Springfield." This was followed by '"Evangeline" (1847), of which Hawthorne wrote to him: "I have read it with more pleasure than ir would be decorous to express," and which thousands upon thou- sands have read, and

will read, with hearts

touched and improved by its serene and pathetic beauty. Then appeared " Kavanagh," a tale in prose (1849) ; " The Seaside and the Fireside," con- taining " The Building of the Ship,'" " Resigna- tion," " The Fire of Driftwood," and twenty other poems (1850) ; and " The Golden Legend " (1851). During all these j'ears he had continued to dis- charge the active duties of his professorship, but they had gradually become irksome to him, and in 1854, after nearly eighteen years of service at Harvard, he resigned the place. " I want to try, he wrote to Freiligrath, " the effect of change on my mind, and of freedom from routine. House- hold occupations, children, relatives, friends, stran- gers, and college lectures so completely fill up my days that I have no time for poetry ; and, conse- quently, the last two years have been very unpro- ductive with me. I am not, however, very sure or sanguine about the result." But he was hardly free from the daily duties of instruction before he was at work upon " Hiawatha," and in the course of the year he wrote many shorter pieces, among his best, such as " The Rope-Walk," "My Lost Youth," and "The Two Angels." "Hiawatha" was published in 1855, and in 1858 appeared "The Courtship of Miles Standish," with about twenty minor poems.

But the days of joyful inspiration and success were drawing to their close. In July, 1861, an in- expressible calamity, by which all his later life was shadowed, fell upon him, in the sudden and most distressing death of his wife by fire. His recovery from its immediate, shattering effect was assisted by the soundness of his nature, the strength of his principles, and the confidence of his religious faith, but it was long before he could resume his usual occupations, or find interest in them. After several months, for the sake of a regular pursuit that might have power more or less to engage his thought, he took up the translation of the " Divine Comedy." He found the daily task wholesome, and gradually he became interested in it. For the next three or four years the translation, the revis- ion of it for the press, and the compilation of the notes that were to accompany it, occupied much of his time. The work was published in 1867, and took rank at once as the best translation in English of Dante's poem. The accomplishment of this task had not only been a wholesome restorative of intellectual calm, but had been the means of bringing about in a natural and simple way the renewal of social pleasures and domestic hospitali- ties. In the revision of the work, Longfellow had called to his aid his friends, James Russell Lowell and the present writer; and the "Dante Club" thus formed met regularly at Craigie House one evening every week for two or three winters. Other friends often joined the circle, and the even- ings ended with a cheerful supper. Thus, by de- grees, with the passing of time, the current of life began once more to run on in a tranquil course, and though without a ray of the old sunlight, equally without a shadow of gloom. At the end of 1863 he published "Tales of a Wayside Inn," a volume in which there was no lowering of tone, no utterance of sorrow, but full vigor and life in such poems as " Paul Revere's Ride," " The Birds of Killingworth," " The Children's Hour," and others. The printing of the translation of the " Divine Comedy " was begun about the same time, and the text of the " Inferno " was completed in season to send to Florence the volume, not yet published, as an offering in honor of Dante, on oc- casion of the celebration in that city of the sixth centenary of the poet's bii'th in May, 1865. The whole translation, with its comment, was finally published in 1867. In the same year appeared a little volume of original poems, entitled "Flower de Luce," and in succeeding years, at irregular intervals, he wrote and published " The New Eng- land Tragedies" (1868); "The Divine Tragedy" (1871); "Three Books of Song" (1872); "After- math " (1874) ; "The Masque of Pandora" (1875) ; "Keramos" (1878) ; and "Ultima Thule" (1880). A little volume containing his last poems was pub- lished in 1882, after the poet's death, with the title of " In the Harbor."

These years had been marked by few striking events in his external life. They had been spent for the most part at Cambridge, with a summer residence each year at Nahant. His interests were chiefly domestic and social ; his pursuits were the labors and the pleasures of a poet and a man of letters. His hospitality was large and gracious, cordial to old friends, and genial to new acquaint- ances. His constantly growing fame burdened him with a crowd of visitors and a multitude of letters from " entire strangers." They broke in upon his time, and made a vast tax upon his good nature. He was often wearied by the incessant demands, but he regarded them as largely a claim of human- ity upon his charity, and his charity never failed. He had a kind word for all, and with ready sacri- fice of himself he dispensed pleasure to thousands. In 1868 and 1869, accompanied by his daughters, he visited Europe for the last time, and enjoyed a delightful stay in England, in Paris, and especially in Italy. Fame and the affection that his poems had awakened for him, though personally un- known, in the hearts of many in the Old World not less than in the New, made his visit to Europe a series of honors and of pleasures. But he re- turned home glad to enjoy once more its compara- tive tranquillity, and to renew the accustomed course of the day. His last years were the fitting close of such a life. In 1875 he read at Bruns- wick, on the fiftieth anniversary of his graduation,