Poems of Places Oceana 1 V. (Volume 14); England 4 Scotland 3 V Iceland, Switzerland, Greece, Russia, Asia, 3 America 5

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

General Books LLC, 2009 - 152 pages

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877. Excerpt: ... Gormaz. THE KNIGHT OF SALNT GEORGE. BEFORE Saint Stephen of Gormaz Lond the brazen trumpets ring; 'Tis where Ferdinand of Castile Holds his camp, the valiant king! Almanzor, the Moorish monarch, From Cordova hastening down, With a mighty host is marching, To besiege the loyal town; Armed already, firmly mounted, Waits the prond Castilian band, While through all the ranks, impatient, Rides the gallant Ferdinand. "Pascal Vivas! Pascal Vivas 1 Pride of all the knightly race, Wherefore, on the eve of battle, Art thou wanting at thy place? Thou, who once to arm wast foremost, Foremost in the deadly fray, Hear'st thou not the warlike trumpet, And the battle-cry to-day? While the Christian ranks are fighting, Shall they vainly seek thine aid? Shall thy well-won trophies wither, And thy lanrels droop and fade?" Pascal Vivas cannot hear him, In the distant forest glade; Where Saint George's holy chapel Stands beneath the ancient shade. At the gate his steed is waiting, There his spear and shield recline, While the knight, in silence kueeliug, Prays before the sacred shrine; Buried in a deep devotion, Thinks not of the distant war, As its rising din is echoing Through the forest depths afar; Marks not now his steed's loud neighing, As the tumult strikes his ears; But Saint George, his Patron, watches, And the distant battle hears. From the clouds the Saint descending Dons the armor of the knight, Mounts the gallant steed, impatient, Hastens onward to the fight. Flashing through the fray, triumphant, As the lightning from the sky, See, he grasps Almanzor's banner, And the Moorish squadrons fly! Pascal Vivas' prayers are ended, Now he seeks the cloister gate, Where, as when at first he left them, Steed and spear and armor wait. Thoughtful towards the camp he hastens, ...

About the author

During his lifetime, Longfellow enjoyed a popularity that few poets have ever known. This has made a purely literary assessment of his achievement difficult, since his verse has had an effect on so many levels of American culture and society. Certainly, some of his most popular poems are, when considered merely as artistic compositions, found wanting in serious ways: the confused imagery and sentimentality of "A Psalm of Life" (1839), the excessive didacticism of "Excelsior" (1841), the sentimentality of "The Village Blacksmith" (1839). Yet, when judged in terms of popular culture, these works are probably no worse and, in some respects, much better than their counterparts in our time. Longfellow was very successful in responding to the need felt by Americans of his time for a literature of their own, a retelling in verse of the stories and legends of these United States, especially New England. His three most popular narrative poems are thoroughly rooted in American soil. "Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie" (1847), an American idyll; "The Song of Hiawatha" (1855), the first genuinely native epic in American poetry; and "The Courtship of Miles Standish" (1858), a Puritan romance of Longfellow's own ancestors, John Alden and Priscilla Mullens. "Paul Revere's Ride," the best known of the "Tales of a Wayside Inn"(1863), is also intensely national. Then, there is a handful of intensely personal, melancholy poems that deal in very successful ways with those themes not commonly thought of as Longfellow's: sorrow, death, frustration, the pathetic drift of humanity's existence. Chief among these are "My Lost Youth" (1855), "Mezzo Cammin" (1842), "The Ropewalk" (1854), "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport" (1852), and, most remarkable in its artistic success, "The Cross of Snow," a heartfelt sonnet so personal in its expression of the poet's grief for his dead wife that it remained unpublished until after Longfellow's death. A professor of modern literature at Harvard College, Longfellow did much to educate the general reading public in the literatures of Europe by means of his many anthologies and translations, the most important of which was his masterful rendition in English of Dante's Divine Comedy (1865-67).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Poems of Places Oceana 1 V. (Volume 14); England 4 Scotland 3 V Iceland, Switzerland, Greece, Russia, Asia, 3 America 5
• Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: General Books LLC, 2009
• ISBN: 1150030771, 9781150030772
• Length: 152 pages