A GLEAM OF SUNSHINE. Composition and publication.-"The last day of summer. Began my college work; classes unusually large. In the afternoon a delicious drive with F. and C. [his wife Frances and his first child] through Brookline, by the church and the green-lane,' and homeward through a lovelier lane, with barberries and wild vines clustering over the old stone walls."-Longfellow, Journal, Aug. 31, 1846. This reference to "the green lane," 1. 10, associates the poem therefore with Brookline, the rich beautiful residential suburb to the south-west of Boston, and its Unitarian Church. The poem was written before the time of the entry in the Journal. One would fancy it recalled days of courtship or of early married life, which, as the poet took his second wife in 1843, is not improbable. It was published in the volume called The Belfry of Bruges and other Poems, Cambridge, 1846, pp. 19-22. There are no changes from this first printed version. Page 52. 1. 9.—the highway to the town. Apparently Western Avenue, a splendid roadway, built in 1821. 1. 12. O gentlest of my friends! This seems to suggest his wife, Frances Appleton Longfellow. In Hyperion she is described :-" Her face had a wonderful fascination in it. It was such a calm, quiet face, with the light of the rising soul shining so peacefully through it. At times it wore an expression of seriousness of sorrow even; and then seemed to make the very air bright with what the Italian poets so beautifully call the lampeggiar dell' angelico riso,— the lightning of the angelic smile. And O, those eyesthose deep unutterable eyes, with 'down-falling eyelids full of dreams and slumber,' and within them a cold living light, as in mountain lakes at evening....Every step, every attitude, was graceful, and yet lofty, as if inspired by the soul within. And what a soul was hers! A temple dedicated to heaven, and, like the Pantheon at Rome, lighted only from above. And earthly passions in the forms of gods were no longer there, but the sweet and thoughtful faces of Christ and the Virgin Mary, and the Saints.-Hyperion, iii. iv. 1. 13.—linden trees. The American linden-tree, or bass wood, sweet in spring with odorous yellow blossoms. Page 53. 1. 21ff.—I saw the branches of the trees, etc. Lines worthy of a place with, A foot more light, a step more true, Ne'er from the heath-flower dashed the dew; E'en the light hare-bell raised its head, Elastic from her airy tread. -Scott, The Lady of the Lake, i. xviii. For her feet have touched the meadows And left the daisies rosy. -Tennyson, Maud, xii. 1. 25f.-"Sleep, sleep to-day, tormenting cares," etc. Quoted from a favourite hymn of the Unitarian church in America, written by an English poetess : Sleep, sleep to-day, tormenting cares Of earth and folly born! Ye shall not dim the light that streams To-morrow will be time enough To feel your harsh controul; Sleep, sleep forever, guilty thought! And, purged from sin, may I behold A God of purity! -Anna Lætitia Barbauld (1743-1825). 1. 31.-Like the celestial ladder. Cf. Evang., 1. 821. The poet was fond to a fault of certain comparisons and allusions, especially of comparisons and allusions drawn from the Bible. The prevalence in his work of these biblical references is, without doubt, due to the Puritan background of New England life. The student of New England literature will have noticed that this peculiarity of style is even more marked in the poetry of Longfellow's predecessors. Here the religious associations make the comparison very apt. 1. 39f.-For he spake of Ruth....I thought of thee. Forgot was Britain's glory : Each heart recalled a different name, But all sang 66 Annie Lawrie." -Bayard Taylor, The Song of the Camp. Ruth the beautiful. See Ruth, i-iv. Page 54. 1. 49ff.-thoughts....like pine trees, etc. The imagery is sombre here, suggesting the thoughts of pain, the Weltschmerz, that dim all present joys. Yet behind this cloud is the Gleam of Sunshine (cf. 1. 47) of her remembered presence, shining on the happy past. THE DAY IS DONE. Composition and publication. On Nov. 26, 1844, L. wrote to his father, "I have also in press a small volume of poems,‚—a selection merely, of favorite pieces,-to be called the Waif, with an introductory poem by myself." The Waif, a Collection of Poems, was published in Cambridge, Christmas of 1844, dated 1845, containing various stray floating pieces along with poems of Herrick, Shelley, Browning, etc. The Proem, or Introduction, is the present poem. It was republished in The Belfry of Bruges, etc., under its present title. From these earliest texts there are no variations. Balfe's pretty music for this song was written in 1856 Keat's sonnet, The Day is Gone, is a treatment of the same theme in a very different spirit. Page 56. 1. 5.—the lights of the village. Cambridge itself, frequently referred to in the Journal as "the village," and only about 1853 (see Journal, Sept. 21) turning into a city. 1. 16.—thoughts. An archaic sense, anxious thoughts, cares (1. 42). Cf. "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat."-Matt. vi. 25. 1. 29.-long days of labor, etc. To scorn delights, and live laborious days. -Milton, Lycidas, 1. 73. THE OLD CLOCK ON THE STAIRS. Composition and publication. In the town of Pittsfield in western Massachusetts, stands the mansion formerly (till 1853) belonging to the Appletons. It is an old-fashioned country-house standing back from the street among splendid trees. One of its greatest ornaments was a great clock on the stairway. When Longfellow in 1843 married Frances Appleton, daughter of Nathan Appleton of Boston, they spent part of their wedding journey with Mrs. Longfellow's relatives at Pittsfield in the family mansion. There L. saw the clock of our poem, and learned those incidents of the history of the Appleton family, which he afterwards embodied in its verses. On the sale of the family mansion the old clock was reserved and brought to Boston, "where it still stands in the hallway of Mr. Thomas Appleton's residence." In his Journal, Nov. 12, 1815, L. wrote: "Began a poem on a clock, with the words, "Forever, never burden; suggested by the words of Bridaine, the old French missionary, who said of eternity, "C'est une pendule,” etc. as the The poem was first printed in The Belfry of Bruges, etc. The text has not varied since its first publication. แ Page 57.-The motto. 'Eternity is a clock the pendulum of which says and repeats ceaselessly these two words only, in the silence of the tombs: Ever! never! Ever! never!" Jacques Bridaine (1701-1767). Pronounce zhak brē-dān'. Educated at the Jesuit College of Avignon, France, a missionary priest of wonderful eloquence, force and imagination, devoting himself to evangelical work throughout the towns of Central and Northern France. The extract is the exordium of a sermon on Eternity, preached at St. Sulpice. It was preserved by Cardinal Maury and printed by La Harpe, Cours de littérature. The concluding words are equally powerful: "And ever during these awful revolutions one reprobate soul cries: What time is it? And the voice of another replies, Eternity." 1. 3.-antique. Note the unusual accent here and in Evang., 1. 93. This accentuation was once very common, hence antic, which is the same word as antique (Fr. antique, L. antiquus). How well in thee appears The constant service of the antique world. -Shakspere, As You Like It, ii. iii. The differentiation of spelling and accent accompanied the differentiation of meaning. portico. An open porch or piazza, the roof of which is supported by pillars. Page 58. 1. 35.-His great fires. Hospitality personified as the host. The fire, with well-dried logs supplied, Went roaring up the chimney wide; No mark to part the squire and lord, etc. -Scott, Marmion, vi. (Introɖ,) |