Some of the Indian tribes of the Great Northwest were so delighted with “Hiawatha” that they voted to make the poet one of their great chiefs; and after Longfellow himself had gone to the “Happy Hunting Grounds” across the River of Death, the Indians went through a formal service making the poet’s daughter Alice a girl chief.
It must have been because he was so fond of children that Longfellow became known as the “Children’s Poet.” In the hall of quaint old Craigie House, which became the poet’s home, stood the stately “Old Clock on the Stairs,” solemnly ticking: “Forever, never! Never, forever!” In the early morning the spacious rooms were made bright with the merry laughter of Longfellow’s three little daughters, running down to spend an hour with their kindly, white-haired poet father. Of this he wrote in a poem named “The Children’s Hour”:
“From my study I see in the lamplight,
Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair.”
Longfellow’s last poem was about “The Bells of San Blas,” which appeared in print just a few days before he died. The close of this—the last poetry he ever wrote—were these three lines:
“Out of the shadow of night
The world rolls into light—
It is daybreak everywhere.”
INDEX
KEY TO PRONUNCIATION
āte, sen*ate, râre, căt, loc*al, fär, åsk, pårade; scēne, *event, ĕdge, nov*el, refḛr; rîght, sĭn; cōld, *obey, côrd, stŏp, c*ompare; ūnit, *unite, bûrn, cŭt, foc*us, menü; bōōt, fŏŏt; found; boil; fuṅction; chase; good; joy; then, thick; hw = wh as in when; zh = z as in azure; kh = ch as in loch.