"
Longfellow says that he wrote this ballad between twelve and three in the
morning and that the composition did not come to him by lines, but by
stanzas.
Even more vigorous is his ballad of _The Skeleton in Armor_ (1840). The
Viking hero of the tale, like young Lochinvar, won the heart of the
heroine, the blue-eyed daughter of a Norwegian prince.
"When of old Hildebrand
I asked his daughter's hand,
Mute did the minstrels stand
To hear my story."
The Viking's suit was denied. He put the maiden on his vessel before he was
detected and pursued by her father. Those who think that the gentle
Longfellow could not write poetry as energetic as Scott's _Lochinvar_
should read the following stanza:--
"As with his wings aslant,
Sails the fierce cormorant,
Seeking some rocky haunt,
With his prey laden,--
So toward the open main,
Beating to sea again,
Through the wild hurricane,
Bore I the maiden."
Those who are fond of this kind of poetry should turn to Longfellow's
_Tales of a Wayside Inn_ (1863), where they will find such favorites as
_Paul Revere's Ride_ and _The Birds of Killingworth_.
LONGER POEMS.
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