the poem to bring out the sound effect intended by the writer. MY LOST YOUTH I. In his Journal for March 29, 1855, the poet says: A day of pain; cowering over the fire. At night as I lie in bed, a poem comes into my mind - a memory of Portland, my native town, the city by the sea. 'Sitteth the city wherein I was born Under March 30 we read: -DANTE, Inferno V, 97. Wrote the poem; and am rather pleased with it, and with the bringing in of the two lines of the old Lapland song, A boy's will is the wind's will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts. See Life, Letters, and Journal, II, 284. II. Study first in this poem the stanza structure. There are ten stanzas of nine lines each, and the movement is iambicanapestic. How many feet in the various lines? What is the rime-scheme? Notice in each stanza the rime of line 6 with long in line 9. The movement brings out the tone of quiet, meditative reminiscence. Observe the number of long, retarding vowels. The last two lines of each stanza repeat the refrain; the two lines immediately before them introduce it. The special thought, then, of each stanza is in its first five lines. The first stanza introduces the theme and states the source of the refrain; stanzas two to eight speak of the poet's memories of his boyhood in Portland; the ninth and tenth stanzas conclude the poem by telling how the man feels when he revisits the old home. III. Each stanza should now be studied as a unit. What is the subject of each? Which speak of events and surroundings of his boyhood? Which of feelings? How does the poet enrich and strengthen his expression, and make his description vivid by his choice of words and use of figures? Does the sound add to the emotional effect in any of the stanzas? The following notes explain the only allusions that could possibly be obscure: The fortifications of Portland were made during the second war with England, Portland then being a much more prominent harbor than now. Of the naval battle near Portland, Austin (Longfellow, p. 42) says: On September 4, 1813, The Boxer, British brig of war, Captain S. Blythe, was captured off the Maine coast by the American brig Enterprise, Lieutenant W. Burrows, and on the morning of the seventh was brought into Portland harbor. On the next day both commanders, who had been killed in the encounter, were buried with imposing and impressive ceremonies in the cemetery at the foot of Munjoy's Hill. Deering's Woods was a grove near Portland, a favorite resort among the young people. Hesperides is explained by books on mythology. IV. Turn now to the refrain, taken from the "Lapland song." With the first line compare, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.". John 3:8. What adjectives used in the poem to describe the song describe also the willfulness of a boy's impulses? Explain the second line from your own thoughts and dreams of the future. Which stanzas in the poem are subjective? What specific words do you find in these defining the "long, long thoughts" of boyhood? Is the retard at the end of each stanza in harmony with the thought? Regarding the use of a refrain, Poe says: - As commonly used, the refrain, or burden, not only is limited to lyric verse, but depends for its impression upon the force of monotone both in sound and thought. The pleasure is deduced solely from the sense of identity — of repetition. I resolved to diversify, and so heighten, the effect, by adhering, in general, to the monotone of sound, while I continually varied that of thought; that is to say, I determined to produce continuously novel effects by the variation of the application of the refrain · the refrain itself remaining, for the most part, un varied. The Philosophy of Composition. Poe later explains that the variation of "application" consists in leading up in different ways to the refrain. Show how Longfellow, in the two lines that lead up to the refrain in each stanza, has attained not only variety, but also harmony with the thought and diction of the stanza. V. Read the poem from beginning to end aloud. Bring out the note of pathos which must belong to any man's memory of his "lost youth." Remember what Poe says of the value of the "monotone of sound" in the refrain, and of the "variation of the application" in the lines that lead up to it. THREE FRIENDS OF MINE I. These five sonnets form the five stanzas of one poem. The first sonnet is introductory, the last is a conclusion, and the three intermediate ones are addressed to the three friends. The line is iambic pentameter, and the rime-scheme is abba abba for the octave, and cde cde for the sestet. The octave of the first, or introductory, sonnet expresses the poet's feeling for the character of his friends; the sestet expresses his sense of loss in their death and his thought of them in the new world to which they have gone. II. The second sonnet commemorates Charles C. Felton, for many years Professor of Greek at Harvard, and at the time of his death president of the College. For an account of the friendship of Longfellow with Felton and with the two men celebrated in the two stanzas following, the student should consult Longfellow's Life, Letters, and Journal. (See their names in the index.) In this sonnet written for Felton the allusions are properly all to Greek literature and history, for he was a celebrated Philhellene ("lover of Greek") in his day. The last three lines of the sestet express the poet's grief for the loss of this friend. The third sonnet is in honor of Louis Agassiz, a Swiss by birth, Professor of Natural History at Harvard. Longfellow has addressed other poems to Agassiz. (See the index to Longfellow's Poems.) Agassiz was not only a great scientist but a man of high and noble character and poetic soul. Whit-tier, Lowell, Holmes, and other New England poets have written in his honor. Show how this sonnet appropriately commemorates the greatest scientist of his time. The "cottage door" is that of the summer home by the sea, where Agassiz studied the forms of sea-life. The fourth sonnet is in honor of Charles Sumner, the famous senator from Massachusetts, to whom, as well as to Charles C. Felton, Longfellow refers in his poem To the River Charles. Charles River at Cambridge flows beside Mount Auburn Cemetery ("The City of the Dead"), where are buried Sumner, Agassiz, Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, and other illustrious men of Boston and Cambridge. Notice particularly the beauty and suitableness of the figures of speech in this fourth sonnet. III. The concluding sonnet takes us to the poet's library, and shows us the summer scene he beholds from his window the lilac hedge that separates his lawn from the street, the winding River Charles at flood tide, the misty Brighton meadOWS a view he has often enjoyed with his three friends. The sonnet closes with an expression of the unsatisfied longing felt by one who lingers when his dearest have passed on. IV. Read the poem aloud. Try to bring out its music and its haunting note of loneliness and longing. THE ARSENAL AT SPRINGFIELD I. This poem was suggested by a visit Mr. Longfellow, his wife, and Mr. Sumner made to the United States Arsenal at Springfield, Massachusetts. Mr. Sumner remarked that the money paid for the weapons would have been better spent in building and furnishing a library (see stanza 9), and Mrs. Longfellow asked her husband to write a peace poem. In response to his wife's request, the poet might write in praise of the arts of peace, or he might show the horrors of war. Which method does he choose? Compare the effect of this poem with that of some poem setting forth the pomp and glories of war with Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade. The latter shows us that certain virtues as courage and prompt, unquestioning obedience - are developed in battle; on reading it we feel as if we should like to be soldiers and do something brave. Do you feel that when you read Longfellow's poem? Has he written a peace poem? See Life, Letters, and Journal by S. Longfellow, II, 2, 3, 18, 19. The thought of the poem is, however, optimistic: though war |