This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 edition. Excerpt: ...attain a pure poetic style as the prose of Hawthorne attains a pure prose style. The most distinctive of Mr. Longfellow's poems are probably those which he entitles "Birds of Passage," and which he has from time to time published as portions of separate volumes. They were inspired by many literatures, ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 edition. Excerpt: ...attain a pure poetic style as the prose of Hawthorne attains a pure prose style. The most distinctive of Mr. Longfellow's poems are probably those which he entitles "Birds of Passage," and which he has from time to time published as portions of separate volumes. They were inspired by many literatures, and are in many measures, among which, however, that of "The Song of Hiawatha" does not reappear, though the hexameter does, and as recently as in his last collection (" Keramos, and other Poems"), published in the present year. What first impresses me, in reading them, is the multifarious reading of their writer, who seems to have no favorite authors, but to read for the delight that he takes in letters. He has the art of finding unwritten poems in the most out-of-the-way books, and in every-day occurrences. A great man dies--the Duke of Wellington, for example--and he hymns his departure in "The Warden of the Cinque Ports," which many prefer to the Laureate's scholarly ode. His good friend Hawthorne dies, and he embalms his memory and his unfinished romance in imperishable verse: "Ah! who shall lift that wand of magic power, And the lost clew regain? The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower Unfinished must remain!" Sumner dies, and he drops a melodious tear upon his grave: "Were a star quenched on high, For ages would its light, Still traveling downward from the sky, Shine on our mortal sight. "So, when a great man dies, For years beyond our ken, The light he leaves behind him lies Upon the paths of men." And again he bids him farewell in a touching sonnet, with a pathetic and unexpected ending: "Good-night! good-night! as we so oft have said Beneath this roof at...
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