lines are either short or, if long, are broken by distinct pauses; his scansion is regular; his rhymes frequent and unequivocal. Further than this he has contributed to common speech many memorable lines, for he is distinctly quotable. His "Silently blossom the stars," his "She seemed to feel a thrill of life along her keel," his "Footprints on the sands of time," his "He looked the whole world in the face," show his aptitude for pat felicity.

Longfellow, the Man.-As a man, Longfellow is eminently sound and sane. Like Tennyson, he seems always to have written as though "a staid matron had just left the room.” In general he was a man in whom a sense of the proprieties was very well developed. He loved children and birds; he believed in the family and the uninterrupted monotone of happy domesticity; he had an unimpassioned respect for patriotism. But in a larger way he upheld his belief in the essential goodness of man. From "The Village Blacksmith" to "Giles Corey," and from "Giles Corey" to "Michael Angelo," he was consistently defending mankind to itseif. And, last of all, he performed what Matthew Arnold declared to be the function of culture: the task of "justify(ing) the ways of God to man." He was a consistent, healthy, encouraging optimist, who doubted not that "through the ages one unceasing purpose runs.'

REVIEW OUTLINE.-Contrast the essential characteristics of the popular spokesmen of the mid-century with those of such men as Emerson, Thoreau, and their followers. Give an outline of Whittier's life, as it shows his practical nature in his ability to support himself as a youth and in his hard sense as applied to the influencing of public opinion. Tell how his attitude to the Abolition movement can be traced in his lyric poems from 1834 to 1865. How does he show his affection for New England traditions, as well as for the New England of his own day? Were his comments on his own poetical power and his physical strength true to the facts?

Show how

State the main facts in the life of James Russell Lowell. his attempt to find himself resulted in the struggle between the love of the beautiful and his strong moral sense. See how this was carried on in terms of "The Present Crisis," "The Biglow Papers," and "The Vision

of Sir Launfal" in different ways. How was his versatility further developed by his relationship with Harvard University? In what respects is it fair to say of him that he was the Elizabethan of the New England nineteenth-century poets?

Why is the uneventfulness of the life of Oliver Wendell Holmes worth commenting on in view of his work as a man of letters? Contrast his experience with that of Addison, of Goldsmith, and of Irving, all of whom developed into satirists, who were comparable to himself. What various kinds of society verse did Holmes write which show in different ways his relation to his town and his college? Notice the shift in his literary activity when at the age of forty-eight he turned toward the four books of prose essays which he was originally stimulated to write by Lowell for the “Atlantic Monthly." What justice is there in the common assertion that Holmes was an echo of the eighteenth century in the substance and in the form of his works?

What concrete evidence exists that Longfellow enjoyed greater popularity than any other American poet? Give the main facts in his life, particularly as these show the development of his enthusiasm for scholarship and his ambition to become a man of letters. Why should his mastery of various languages and literatures affect him when he attempted to write native American verse? What evidences of this exist in the poetry which he wrote up to 1845? Give the names of his chief poems, drawn directly from American material. Do these show that he followed Sydney's precept to look into his own heart and write? Was his interest in America directed toward the social facts of his day in any such way as that of Whittier, Lowell, and Holmes? Select any of his most popular poems and test them to see whether there are present in them the common sources of popularity: familiar and symmetrical form, clearness of content, the narrative thread, and an applied moral.

READING GUIDE.-Readings from Whittier should include in the first group "Snow-Bound," "In School Days," "The Trailing Arbutus," "Skipper Ireson's Ride," "Cassandra Southwick," "Abram Davenport." The second group should include his war-poems mentioned in the text. Good short lives of Whittier are by T. W. Higginson (English Men of Letters series) and George R. Carpenter (American Men of Letters series).

Readings from Lowell should include in the first group

"The Present

Crisis," selections from "A Fable for Critics," "The Vision of Sir Launfal," and selections from "The Biglow Papers" (second series). The second group should include "She Came and Went," "The First Snow-Fall," "After the Burial," "The Harvard Commemoration Ode." From his prose, his essays on "New England Two Centuries Ago,” "Cambridge Thirty Years Ago," "Emerson the Lecturer," and "Thoreau" have a double value as Lowell's work and as literary history. Good biographies are by H. E. Scudder and by Ferris Greenslet. Readings from Holmes should include, from his verse: "Old Ironsides," "The Last Leaf," "Latter-Day Warnings," "The Chambered Nautilus," "The Deacon's Masterpiece, or The Wonderful 'One Hoss Shay'"; from his prose, chapters either from "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table” or from “Over the Tea-Cups." The best short life is by S. M. Crothers (announced in American Men of Letters series). Readings from Longfellow should include "The Courtship of Miles Standish," "The Song of Hiawatha," "Evangeline," "A Psalm of Life," "The Village Blacksmith," "Excelsior," "The Bridge," "The Arrow and the Song," "Curfew," "The Building of the Ship," "Paul Revere's Ride," and others as time affords the opportunity. Two good onevolume biographies are by George R. Carpenter (Beacon Biographies) and by T. W. Higginson (American Men of Letters series).

NOTE: "The Chief American Poets," edited by Curtis Hidden Page, is the most useful single book for study of the poets in this chapter. Recommendations for reading are limited to the selections included therein, from the poets above as well as from Bryant, Emerson, Poe, Whitman, and Lanier.

CHAPTER V

POE, WHITMAN, AND THE SOUTHERN POETS

I. INTRODUCTION

Two Isolated Poets.-In the Old World Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman are considered by most critics to be the greatest men of letters whom America has yet produced. By their own countrymen they are not so generally applauded. A possible explanation for this is suggested by the fact that both of these men in a measure defy the "historical" method of criticism, for neither was involved in ordinary community life of the country after the fashion of the normal man of letters. They belonged to no groups and represented no social movements. Both of them, moreover, were victims of a certain degree of unbalance as measured by the standard adopted by Emerson. Poe kept his head too much in solitude and lost sight of the world; Whitman plunged his hands so deep in society that he forfeited to some extent his sense of perspective. Out of this a curious paradox arises, for Poe, who lived in point of sympathy almost wholly apart from the people, is steadily gaining in popularity; while Whitman, who was deep in the stream of life and elected himself to be the poet of democracy, has always been more talked about than read.

II. EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)

Poe's Early Opportunities.-The parents of Edgar Allan Poe were actors known as the "Virginia Comedians." He was born in Boston, January 19, 1809, and within two years was an orphan. The three children (for he had an older

brother and a younger sister) were adopted into Southern families, Mr. John Allan, of Richmond, Va., a prosper. ous merchant, becoming the foster-father of Edgar. The boy had the best of educational advantages, first in an English school from the age of six to eleven, then in two Richmond academies, and later in the University of Virginia, which he entered at the age of seventeen. Here he was brilliant but irregular, his creditable work in Latin and French not offsetting the gambling debts which caused his first separation from Mr. Allan. Two years in the army were concluded by an honorable discharge in 1829 and a reconciliation with his father; but his West Point experience, which came next, ended so disastrously that Mr. Allan at his death, three years later, left nothing to his foster-son.

Poe's Later Life.—The remainder of his life was a pathetic struggle to adjust himself to the ways of the world. He married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, in 1834, and was faithfully devoted to her till her death, thirteen years later. He became the literary editor of various magazines: The Southern Literary Messenger, 1835-1837; The Gentleman's Magazine, 18391840; Graham's Magazine, 1841-1843; The Evening Mirror (New York), 1844; The Broadway Journal, 1845. It was in these periodicals that the majority of his poems and stories appeared, but his income from them never removed him from the verge of poverty. After the loss of his wife, in 1847, he wrote less frequently. The distressing circumstances of his death in October, 1849, have never been fully explained.

The Testimony of N. P. Willis.—So persistent is the tradition that Poe was given to unrestrained self-indulgence that the characterization by Nathaniel Parker Willis, of the Evening Mirror, cannot be quoted too often: "With the highest admiration for his genius, and a willingness to let it atone for more than ordinary irregularity, we were led by common report to expect a very capricious attention to his duties. . . . Time went on, however, and he was invariably punctual and industrious. With his pale, beautiful, and intellectual face as a reminder of what genius was in him, it was impossible, of course, not to treat him always with deferential courtesy.

(He was) a quiet, patient, industrious, and most gen