Happy 200th Birthday Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[BOSSHOG]

He gave us

- Evangeline
- The Song of Hiawatha
- The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
- The Courtship of Miles Standish
- and much more

They just don't write em like that anymore.

Longfellow lived in Cambridge, MA and died in 1882

[zanne]

1. Isn't there a Longfellow House in Portland, Maine? nt

[eShirl]

3. yep, that's where he grew up

they're having a birthday cake for him tonight

[WiseButAngrySara]

2. Happy BD Longfellow.

Hymn To The Night

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through her marble halls!
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls!

I felt her presence, by its spell of might,
Stoop o'er me from above;
The calm, majestic presence of the Night,
As of the one I love.

I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,
The manifold, soft chimes,
That fill the haunted chambers of the Night
Like some old poet's rhymes.

From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
My spirit drank repose;
The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,--
From those deep cisterns flows.

O holy Night! from thee I learn to bear
What man has borne before!
Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care,
And they complain no more.

Peace! Peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer!
Descend with broad-winged flight,
The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair,
The best-beloved Night!

http://www.online-literature.com/henry_longfellow/941/

[Benhurst]

4. I didn't realize he's still with us.

[BOSSHOG]

6. He's slowed down quite a bit

but if you drink enough and hang out in Jackson Square in New Orleans at three in the morning (which would necessitate jumping a locked fence) you can see Henry and Marie Louveau planning their next screen play. For some reason, as the alcohol wears off so does his image.

[Dragonfly]

5. One of my top 5 quotes is his:

"Music is the universal language of humankind"

[Maine-i-acs]

7. Love his statue in Portland. He 'wooed' his second wife for 7 years

after his first wife died. And then she finally relented. I think she was in England, and he never gave up on her.