[Illustration: LONGFELLOW'S HOME, CRAIGIE HOUSE, CAMBRIDGE]
From 1854 until 1861 he lived in reality the ideal existence of his
youthful dreams. In 1861 his wife's summer dress caught fire, and although
he struggled heroically to save her, she died the next day, and he himself
was so severely burned that he could not attend her funeral. Years
afterwards he wrote:--
"Here in this room she died; and soul more white
Never through martyrdom of fire was led
To its repose."
Like Bryant, he sought refuge in translating. Longfellow chose Dante, and
gave the world the fine rendering of his _Divine Comedy_ (1867).
Outside of these domestic sorrows, Longfellow's life was happy and
prosperous. His home was blessed with attractive children. Loved by
friends, honored by foreigners, possessed of rare sweetness and lovableness
of disposition, he became the most popular literary man in America. He
desired freedom from turmoil and from constant struggling for daily bread,
and this freedom came to him in fuller measure than to most men.
The children of the country felt that he was their own special poet. The
public schools of the United States celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday,
February 27, 1882.
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