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��NOTES BY THE WAY.
��come thoughts of peace, of romance, of the house made beautiful by loving hands." The work was first published in its complete form by Messrs, Harper & Brothers in 1835, and Longfellow, on paying his second visit to Europe in the same year, arranged for an English edition to be published by Bentley. In his preface he refers to the perils of an unknown author,
" who launches forth into the uncertain current of public favor in so frail a bark as this ! The very rocking of the tide may overset him ; or perad venture some freebooting critic, prowling about the great ocean of letters, may descry his strange colors, hail him through a gray goose-quill, and perhaps sink him without more ado."
While he was writing ' Outre-Mer ' the duties of his professorship in Bowdoin College and the preparation of textbooks took up most of his time, so it was only by working late into the night that he was able to complete his book. This, he tells us, he did when
" the morning watches had begun, and as I write, the melancholy thought intrudes upon me, To what end is all this toil ? Of what avail these midnight vigils ? Dost thou covet fame ? Vain dreamer ! A few brief days, and what will the busy world know of thee ? Alas I this little book is but a bubble on the stream ; and although it may catch the sunshine for a moment, yet it will soon float down the swift- rushing current and be seen no more."
The first work written by Longfellow in his Cambridge home, in the Washington chamber of Craigie House, was ' Hyperion,' published in New York in 1839. He called it ' Hyperion '
' Hyperion.' " because it moves on high, among clouds and stars, and expresses the various aspirations of the soul of man. It is all modelled on this idea, style and all. It contains my cherished thoughts for three years."
1907, Mar. 23. ' Hyperion ' was written while Longfellow was still under
Marries Mary the shadow of a great grief ; and to understand it aright it is Storer Potter, requisite to remember this. In September, 1831, he was married to Mary Storer Potter. Her character and person are described as being alike lovely : she had dark hair, with eyes of deep blue which lighted a countenance " singularly attractive with the ex- pression of a gentle and affectionate disposition." Husband and wife were devoted to each other ; never was a home more happy than theirs. But the sweet companionship was to last only four brief years. From Rotterdam, on the 28th of November, 1835, Longfellow wrote to his father that his wife " had again fallen ill, and that his anxiety was very great." On the following day she died, " closing her life by a still more peaceful death ; and though called away when life was brightest, yet going without a murmur and in perfect willingness to the bosom of her God." In the lonely hours which followed, the bereaved husband would repeat the hymns which had soothed her last hours and dwell upon her promise, " I will be with you and watch over you." Less than a month
��Her death.
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