Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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The Mary Baldwin Seminary- 19 determined to accept this, hut before doing so, spent a year or two in Enrope, preparing himself more tliort)Ughly for the place. He held this position until 1839, when he resigned it, that he might have more leisure for literary pursuits. When twenty-five years of age, he married Mary Slower Potter, of Portland ; after the death of this lady, which occur- red within a few years, he married Frances Elizabeth Apple- ton, of Boston. Her father gave her, at the time of their mar- riage, the house which Washington had made his headquar- ters, duiing the siege of Boston. This became the poet ' s per- manent home. After eighteen years of happy married life, Mrs. Longfellow was snatched away by a horrible death, that of burning. Her husband never recovered from the shock and the grief caused by this event. He lived chiefly in retire- ment for the remaining years of his life. In the year ' 82, he passed quietly away, an old man full of honors as of years, and loved and reverenced by all who knew him. Especially was he loved and reverenced by the young, and was called the chil- dren ' s poet. When the spreading chestnut tree, which he immortalized in his poem of The Village Blacksmith, was struck by lightning and killed, years after the poem was writ- ten, the children of the neighborhood had a chair made of it for him to whom its fame was due. It was in the spring, the season, that he loved so well, that he left the world budding into new life, fresh with the first green of the meadows and gay with the songs of birds. He wrote many .sonnets and short stories in verse ; in all his lines there is a soft echo of the great voice of nature ; we hear it as we read of rippling brooks, of rustling woods, of the waves washing upon the shore. In many of his poems, there is a touch of sadne.ss, a shadow, as of sorrow which time has softened, but cannot efface. One of his short, descriptive poems is entitled Woods in Winter The winter scene is beautifully described. The trees uprear their leafless branches to the cold, gray sky. Not a bird nor an insect is heard ; the very brooks, that babbled merrily in the gay summer months, are now silent beneath

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1 8 The Annual of How strange it was for anyone to be married after this manner. But Petrucio had some purpose in view. Immedi- ately after the ceremony was concluded he and Kate started for his country home. Poor Kate, how little she knew what was in store for her! Were all shrews tamed in the same way ? Her life was made miserable. For some time she was not allowed to eat nor sleep in peace. What she liked, Petrucio disliked, what she was pleased with, he found fault with. At last she decided that the best thing for her to do, was to agree to everything he said. She soon saw that she had found some one with as strong a will as her own and after having tried to resist, she finally gave in. When she returned to her father ' s home, they could not believe their eyes. Was that mild, gentle woman the same Kate that had so lately left them ? She was even gentler than Lucentio ' s beautiful wife, for he had married Bianca. Every one decided that Petrucio had gained the day, and he was fully rewarded by having the obedient, gentle Kather- ina for his wife. Eva Baker McCue. Staunton, Va, HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Feb. 27th, 1807. The house in which his early childhood was spent may be seen to-day, in outward appearance very like the many houses around it, but ever to be held sacred to the memory of one of our greatest American poets. At eighteen years of age, he graduated at Bowdoin College ; the next year, he went to Europe chiefly for the sake of study. On his re- turn, at the end of several years, he accepted a position as professor of modern languages at Brunswick University, where he remained until he was offered a position at Harvard. He

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20 The Annual of clear sheets of ice. The wind whistles among the dry weed stalks in the hollows, tossing the brown leav es in air, and threatening to tear away the few that have clung to the oak- trees The drear woods of mid-winter inspire one with an awe which they cannot command when clothed in green and fra- grant with sweet flowers. One of the most popular of his poems is Courtship of Miles Standish. John Alden, the hero of the story, was an ancestor of Longfellow ' s ; the youngest of these whom the Mayflower brought ; the first to set foot on Plymouth Rock. He is young, ' fair-haired, azure-eyed, with delicate Saxon complexion ; we first see him bending over the letters which are to carry his secret back to the dear mother country ; to tell his friends at home of his love for Priscilla, the Puritan maiden, whom he has followed over the seas to the barren shores of New England. She came for the sake of religion; he came that he might be near her. As he writes, his friend. Miles Standish, paces the room uneasily, talking of wars and campaigns, and of the great Julius Caesar, whose commenta- ries lie on the shelf beside the Bible, and whom he admired as only a soldier can. John Alden writes on, scarcely heeding his friend ' s rambling words, when, suddenly, he is startled by hearing the name of Briscilla. Then, he listens indeed ; and stands dazed and confused before the blunt captain, as he tells him to go to Priscilla and say that Miles Standish offers her the hand and the heart of a soldier. After the first dumb surprise, Alden quotes the captain ' s favorite maxim, If you want a thing well done, you must do it yourself; hoping thus to avoid so painful an errand ; but his friend thinks the proverb would not hold good in this instance. Then comes the hard struggle between love and friendship ; but , friendship pre- vailed over love, and Alden went on his errand. He reaches the humble dwelling, and finds Priscilla at her wheel ; he tells her the object of his errand, in a awkward boyish fashion, but fondly imagines all is well, as he talks of the captain ' s triumphs aud praises his valor, until the modest, Priscilla, overcome by her love of fun, forgets she is a puritan maiden, and asks with twinkling eye : Why don ' t you .speak