During the agitated period which immedi ately preceded the Civil War Longfellow sym pathized with the cause represented by his friend Sumner, but took no active part in the strife. In July 1861 the tragedy of his life came to him late —his wife was burned to death, her light dress having caught fire from a match on the floor. He was practically heart-broken; but bore his bereavement man fully. Taking up a task that had long before interested him, he sought solace in translating the great poem of Dante. With the aid of Lowell and Prof. Charles Eliot Norton (q.v.) he completed the work in about five years (published 1867-70). It ranks with the best of such renderings of great poems into English, though some have questioned whether Longfellow was not more successful in his earlier attempts to translate a poet always dear to him.
Meanwhile, in 1863, he had published his 'Tales of a Wayside Inn,' some portions of which, such as 'The Saga of King Olaf,' were excellent. In 1868 'The New England Trage dies,' the final section of 'Christus,' failed to attract readers, as did also the first section, 'The Divine Tragedy,' which appeared in 1871. In the spring of 1868 he sailed for the last time to Europe and remained over a year, re ceiving degrees from Oxford and Cambridge and other evidences of the affection and ad miration his works had gained for him abroad. The rest of his life was marked only by the appearance df an occasional volume, and by a growing veneration among his countrymen for his character and his genius. Probably the most significant productions of his old age were some of his sonnets and his dignified
Longfellow is generally admitted to be the most popular of American poets, and the cele bration of his centenary showed that there has been no real abatement of his countrymen's regard for his character and his works. Natu rally, however, he has not escaped censure on the score of the comparatively derivative and facile quality of his genius. Authors of greater individuality, of finer artistic powers and train ing, of more pronounced national and demo cratic qualities — Emerson, Poe, Hawthorne, Whitman, for example,— have received higher praise from critics and have aroused in their devotees a more perfervid admiration than has fallen to Longfellow's lot, at least of late years. Waiving comparisons, we may frankly admit that Longfellow did follow, in the main, well beaten paths, that he was much indebted to the culture of other nations, that he fell short of the higher reaches of the art of poetry, that a considerable proportion of his work is of but slight value. On the other hand, we should in
sist that nearly all his work, whether in prose or verse, was important in the development of American literature and the American char acter, that within his limits he was a true and very accomplished artist, that he succeeded in both elaborate and unelaborate forms, that his fame transcended the bounds of his own lan guage, and that, as a narrative poet and a writer of appealing lyrics of sentiment and re flection, he has left a body of work of per manent and individual value. It seems to be hypercritical not to allow the author of
Longfellow's more important publications have already been named, but to them may be added
Seaside and the Fireside) (1850), which contained (The Building of the Ship' ;
(1867) ;
(1874) ; 'The Masque of Pandora and Other Poems)
which included `Morituri
; Keramos and Other Poems' (1878) ;
Thule) (1880) ; (In the Harbor' (1882) ; and