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gave it to Longfellow. He died on March 24, 1882. "Of all the suns of the New England morning," says Van Wyck Brooks, "he was the largest in his golden sweetness." While Poe was exploring the unhappy depths of the inner; poetry of HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882) directly to the hearts of ordinary Americans. Part of his pop came from saying — and saying beautifully — exactly the thin; Americans wanted to hear. As if to answer Poe, he recommits active, healthy life: Life is real! Life is earnest And the grave is not its goal. . In poems like A Psalm of Life (1838), he expresses the hard optimistic philosophy of his countrymen: Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined-^ end or way; But to act, that each tomorrow Find us farther than today. He encourages idealism. The metaphor is that of a young man climbing a mountain in the Alps. A terrible storm is coming but this does not stop him. When a beautiful maiden invites him to rest with her, he does not stop, but climbs higher: A tear stood in his bright blue eye, but still he answered, with a sigh, Excelsior Climb higher Few people today can enjoy this sort of sentimentalism. It is more funny, now, than inspiring4. But when he turns to American history, he makes it sound so exciting that it is hard to resist him: "Listen, my children, and you shall hear / of the midnight ride of Paul Revere." {Paul Reverie’s Ride, 1861} His great ballads5 were Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855) and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858). In these, he borrowed (or invented) legends of Colonial times and made them into popular stories known to all Americans. His language is always simple and easy to understand. He could change his rhythms with ease_to fit his subject exactly. When picturing a riding horseman like Paul Revere, the meters gallop like a running horse. In the beginning of Evangeline, he describes the setting in a slow-paced, six-beat measure. This prepares us for the tragic love story he is about to tell: This is the forest primeval^ the murmuring" Pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and in garments green, Indistinct in the twilight" Longfellow turned to more religious themes later The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls (1879), he describes life. It is like a traveler who walks along seashore the distance. The water covers his footsteps and \Juice Washington Irving, Longfellow took mo other writers. Still, the modern complaint that original about his work is not completely fail mastered several European languages and creative found in German, Dutch, Finnish and other an more serious problem is pointed out in Emerson this poet: "I have always one foremost satisfactory books - that I am safe." Longfellow never surprise new truths. With his calm and clear voice, he pr simple dreams of average humanity". They were dreams and ideals of nineteenth-century America. Longfellow was the most famous member of Boston writers called the "Brahmins". Most B rich, old Boston families. Although they look "excellence" and often copied English literary sty Boston "the thinking center of the [American] con the planet". Their "Saturday Club" met one S dinner. Gathered together were "most of the educated foreigners wished to see". (An Outline of American Literature pp.59-61)