Selected by Edmund Fuller
The poems in this volume represent the best and most characteristic of Longfellow's work. Here are many of the lyrics and narrative tales that have entered int American mythology carrying lines as dear to us as our own history, Included as well are lesser-known verse, poems that reveal Longfellow as a social critic, an unexcelled craftsman, and a dramatist.
These selections remind us hat the critical pendulum has once more begun to swing in Longfellow's favor. Extravagantly loved i his lifetime, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wove into his poetry the confidence, sentiment, and simple moral fervor of his era.
As the country's feelings changed in the early part of this century, so did it's attitude toward his poetry. Today, as Edmund Fuller points out in the introduction, there is a more balanced appraisal of his writing, an appraisal which regards Longfellow as a gentle and temperate poet who loved, and celebrated, the best in man and in life.
)
Google Books — Loading...
(4.08)
1
Wikipedia in English
I was introduced to Longfellow at about age 9 when the class was preparing for a visit to his childhood home. I liked The Village Blacksmith because of the giant swinging the sledge.
About thirty years later, I selected the poem for use in a Toastmasters' competition. It was the right length, dramatic, with changes in mood. It earned me a first place trophy.
Now fifty-five years later, I read his work and wonder at his understanding of the people and events of the time. As with many poets, his work could just as easily fit in a library classification other than poetry. (