lines to be memorized, as well as those to be scanned, have been selected for their especial beauty of thought and expression and for their ethical content. These quotations will familiarize the student with the names and the style of the great writers studied. From the foregoing it will also appear that an underlying purpose of the Series is to provide, not only for pupils in the schools but for their parents and other adults, appropriate material for the appreciative enjoyment of literary masterpieces. INTRODUCTION HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE quaint old town of Portland, Maine, was the birthplace of Longfellow. Here he received his early education and dreamed the "long, long thoughts" of youth. One year after completing the course at Bowdoin College, he was elected a professor there, but did not fill that office until he had devoted three years to study in Spain, France, Italy, and Germany. Later he resigned his professorship at Bowdoin in order that he might occupy the chair of modern languages and literature at Harvard University, which position he filled after another year abroad. He was twentyeight years of age when he began his work at Harvard, and from that time until his death, he lived in the historic old Craigie House at Cambridge. On his last trip to Europe, when he was sixty-one years old, he was welcomed with great enthusiasm by the English people. For more than twenty-five years he devoted himself exclusively to literature, giving up his classes in college that he might have more time for this congenial work. He was called the "children's poet" both on account of his love for children and because of the number of his poems that appeal to their taste. The tranquillity of his home life was several times invaded by poignant sorrow, but his poem Resignation shows the beautiful spirit in which he accepted his grief. He died in March, 1882, one month after he had completed his seventy-fifth year; he was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge. SOME OF THE WORKS OF LONGFELLOW Prose Outre-Mer. An account of his travels in Europe. Germany. Poetry Voices of the Night. A volume containing A Psalm of Life, The Reaper and the Flowers, Footsteps of Angels, The Beleaguered City, etc. Ballads and Other Poems. This contains some of his most popular short poems: Excelsior, The Village Blacksmith, The Wreck of the Hesperus, The Skeleton in Armor, God's-Acre, and others. Poems on Slavery. The Spanish Student. A drama. The Poets and Poetry of Europe. Translations from ten different languages. The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems. Some of his best poems are found in this volume; among them are: The Day is Done, The Arsenal at Springfield, The Bridge, etc. Evangeline. A tale founded on the banishment of the Acadians. The Seaside and the Fireside. A volume containing among other poems: Resignation (in memory of his baby daughter), The Building of the Ship, The Fire of Driftwood, Twilight. The Song of Hiawatha. A long poem based on Indian legends. The Courtship of Miles Standish. A romance of the Old Colony days in Plymouth. Birds of Passage. Five groups of poems, each group called a "Flight." Tales of a Wayside Inn. A number of tales supposed to be told by a group of visitors at an inn. They include Paul Revere's Ride, The Legend Beautiful, Azrael, The Birds of Killingworth, and other interesting stories. Flower-de-Luce. A dozen short poems. Christus: A Mystery. Part I, The Divine Tragedy; Part II, The The Hanging of the Crane. A companion piece to The Building of the Ship. Morituri Salutamus. Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his class at Bowdoin. The Masque of Pandora. A dramatic poem. A Book of Sonnets. Ultima Thule. A group of short poems. In the Harbor. Twenty-four poems first published after the poet's death. Michael Angelo: A Fragment. A dramatic poem published in 1884. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE PILGRIMS The desire for religious liberty was the strong motive power that induced the Pilgrims to leave their country and face the terrors of a strange new world. These Puritans, as they were called, did not agree with all the tenets of the Anglican creed, which was that of the Established Church of England. Because they had met in secret and sought to worship God in their own way, they had been spied upon and persecuted until they made up their minds to leave England and settle in some land where freedom of worship was permitted. For this reason they chose Holland as a place of refuge, spending ten years in Leyden with their pastor, John Robinson. But when they saw their children adopting the language and falling into the ways of the Hollanders, they decided to come to America, where they could retain both their religion and their nationality. After many delays, two ships were fitted out for them by some London merchants. Although the terms were disadvantageous to the Pilgrims, and would oblige them at the end of seven years to divide equally with the merchants, capital and profits (houses, lands, goods), they were so anxious to depart that they assumed the heavy obligations. |