Look not mournfully into the past; it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart. ~
As mentioned in the recent post on Horatio Spafford, many creatives use their writing as an outlet for their grief. While Spafford’s was an extreme case, there are other talented writers with similar experiences, and one of those is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
The Backstory, In Brief
As so often happens, I had a kernel of an idea for this post and after I began the requisite research, my path took a turn. That is, I had thought to write about the surely epic number of torments Longfellow endured and how they motivated him to write. As it happens, I was ahead of my skis.
I’m not saying his life was a bowl of cherries, but for a person who lived in the 19th century, his experiences were probably more positive than most. One resource I accessed was Poetry Foundation. It tells us Longfellow was born to a family that, if not prosperous, had adequate assets to send their children to private schools. Also, when Longfellow was a young adult and eschewed the life of a lawyer or other professional as his father preferred, he had the luxury of pursuing an academic and writing career. Neither his parents nor economic necessity forced him to alter his chosen course.
That, and his university and familial connections afforded him a six-year-long research project in Europe. All right. Perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration, but if I’m interpreting my readings accurately, he was indeed paid for his efforts, and he didn’t actually teach for the six years following his college graduation. Good work if you can get it.
Inspiration by Loss
As alluded to previously, Longfellow’s life had its share of tragedy. One NPS site tells us his first wife died after only four years of marriage and though his second union produced six children, one child died in infancy. Between 1849 and 1851, he lost his father, his brother, then his mother. Less than 10 years later, his second wife died from burns after her dress caught fire. The Gospel Coalition tells us that Longfellow tried to put the fire out, but his wife succumbed to her injuries the next day. And then there was the Civil War.
Longfellow’s son, Charley, was injured in combat and brought home with the understanding that he might never recover. It was during this season of his life, in December of 1863, that Longfellow listened to the Christmas bells with a heavy heart. When he heard the choir sing of peace on earth he found it difficult to reconcile those words against his recent experiences. Even so, his deep faith sustained him and that is when he wrote “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”
From Bells to Shipwrecks
So, yes. Some of Longfellow’s personal losses motivated him to write a few of his well-known pieces, but there’s more to Longfellow, as Poetry Foundation* tells us. Considering the volume he produced, his periods of sadness account for a small percentage of his total body of work. Owing to his family’s prioritization of education, Longfellow had a solid base in local history, maritime knowledge, conflicts with Native Americans, and the slavery issue. Also – his travels expanded his perspective and his appreciation for romanticism. Longfellow’s work drew both from his American heritage and his exposure to European culture. *This post barely scratches the surface of Longfellow’s life. Take a look at the Poetry Foundation’s article to learn more.
If you look at the variety of topics, you’ll see that this poet was all over the board. In addition to Evangeline, which was required reading in my particular high school, a few favorites are The Children’s Hour, The Village Blacksmith, andThe Wreck of the Hesperus.* Not sure why I enjoy the latter, as it is not a sweetness-and-light kind of work. But there we are. In any case, Longfellow drew inspiration from every encounter. His characters and themes were as varied as the people who will be sitting with you at Christmas dinner. *Check out Classical Poets for their top ten Longfellow poems.
To close the elevator door on this topic (with a nod to a friend)
Once he found his footing, Longfellow had a high degree of commercial success with his poetry. He wrote at least 1,000 poems and published them in 16 books. At his death in 1882, he left an estate valued at $356,320, which is over $12 million in today’s currency. However, his commercial success does not mean he was unanimously adored. He had his critics.
Some thought he was too European, and others thought he focused too much on American issues. Many critics of his day, and some more recently, according to The New Criterion, have dismissed Longfellow as shallow or too traditional. Edgar Allen Poe and Margaret Fuller, his contemporaries, went so far as to accuse him of plagiarism. Understand that from their perspective, that meant he was using others’ work for inspiration, but still. He wasn’t then and is not now universally applauded.
Longfellow wrote as he was moved to write, and clearly didn’t work solely to appeal to the masses. His writing was an outlet, not a product. While I expect he was disappointed when he was out of favor by academics of the time, their approbation or lack of it didn’t seem to change his style.
Were Longfellow’s narratives too banal? Too saccharine at times? Perhaps. But they might have been an excellent balance for Poe’s macabre motifs. Maybe neatly rhyming verses and a sigh of satisfaction at the end of a well-told story were just what people needed then. Maybe it’s what we need right now as well.
Good piece, Longfellow is one of my favorites. I would add that his preoccupation with death inspired a number of very good poems. Specifically, “The Day is Done” and “It is Not Always May”, which I memorized in college and can quote today.
I just re-read these two, and my impression (per usual) is a little different than yours. On a different track, you have been disciplined in your memorization. I should try that one of these years.