In the following lines he refers to the fortifications that were put up when he was five years old: I remember the bulwarks by the shore, And the fort upon the hill; The sunrise gun, with its hollow roar, The drum-beat repeated o’er and o’er. And the bugle wild and shrill. On the 4th of September, 1813, the _Boxer_, British brig of war, was captured off the Maine coast by the American brig _Enterprise_, and a few days later was brought into Portland harbor. On the next day both commanders, who had been killed in the encounter, were buried in the cemetery at the foot of Munjoy’s Hill. The poet thus records his recollections of that event: I remember the sea-fight far away, How it thundered o’er the tide! And the dead captains, as they lay In their graves, o’erlooking the tranquil bay, Where they in battle died. While referring to this poem, it may be noted that Longfellow was very fond of the country, as well as of the sea, and he never lived in a city larger than Cambridge, which is really no city at all, but merely a college town. Near his home in Portland was a large piece of woodland where he was very fond of roaming about with some of his friends. He thus speaks of it in the poem: I can see the breezy dome of groves, The shadows of Deering’s Woods; And the friendships old and the early loves Come back with a sabbath sound, as of doves In quiet neighborhoods. ... I remember the gleams and glooms that dart Across the schoolboy’s brain; The song and the silence in the heart, That in part are prophecies, and in part Are longings wild and vain. At the end of each verse comes the beautiful refrain— And the voice of that fitful song Sings on, and is never still: “A boy’s will is the wind’s will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.” Several other poems were suggested by the sights and sounds of the poet’s boyhood. One was “The Ropewalk,” describing a building that he often passed. There was also a factory where crude pottery was made and where he went and watched the turning wheel that suggested to him many years later the beautiful poem entitled “Keramos.” CHAPTER V COLLEGE DAYS Longfellow went to college when he was very young, indeed only fourteen years old. In those days the requirements for entering college were not so severe as they are now; yet they were by no means easy, and only a bright scholar could pass the examinations. Longfellow was one of the bright boys. He stood second in his class. He had an elder brother, Stephen, who entered college at that same time.