"
Priscilla Mullins, the heroine of the poem, is a general favorite.
Longfellow and Bryant were both proud to trace their descent from her. This
poem introduces her
"Seated beside her wheel, and the carded wool like a snow-drift
Piled at her knee, her white hands feeding the ravenous spindle,
While with her foot on the treadle she guided the wheel in its motion.
* * * * *
She, the Puritan girl, in the solitude of the forest,
Making the humble house and the modest apparel of homespun
Beautiful with her beauty, and rich with the wealth of her being!"
This story has more touches of humor than either _Evangeline_ or
_Hiawatha_. Longfellow uses with fine effect the contradiction between the
preaching of the bluff old captain, that you must do a thing yourself if
you want it well done, and his practice in sending by John Alden an offer
of marriage to Priscilla. Her reply has become classic:
"Why don't you speak for yourself, John?"
Longfellow's _Christus, a Mystery_, was the title finally given by him to
three apparently separate poems, published under the titles, _The Golden
Legend_ (1851), _The Divine Tragedy_ (1871), and _The New England
Tragedies_ (1868).
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