This was his
message:--
"Bear through sorrow, wrong and ruth
In thy heart the dew of youth,
On thy lips the smile of truth."
His poetry is usually more tinctured with feeling than with thought.
Diffuseness is his greatest fault. The _Sonnets_ of his later years and an
occasional poem, like _Morituri Salutamus_ (1875), show more condensation,
but parts of even _Hiawatha_ would be much improved if told in fewer words.
Some complain that Longfellow finds in books too much of the source of his
inspiration; that, although he did not live far from Evangeline's country,
he never visited it, and that others had to tell him to substitute pines or
hemlocks for chestnut trees. Many critics have found fault with his poetry
because it does not offer "sufficient obstruction to the stream of
thought,"--because it does not make the mind use its full powers in
wrestling with the meaning. It is a mistake, however, to underestimate the
virtues of clearness and simplicity. Many great men who have been
unsuccessful in their struggle to secure these qualities have consequently
failed to reach the ear of the world with a message. While other poets
should be read for mental development, the large heart of the world still
finds a place for Longfellow, who has voiced its hopes that
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