Born in Portland, Maine, he graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825 and went abroad to prepare himself to teach the modern languages. He taught until 1854, when he became a professional author. During the remaining years of his fife he lived quietly at Craigie House in Cambridge and there he died. The poems by Longfellow are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of his works. HYMN To THE NIGHT "Night, thrice welcome." "Night, undesired by Troy, but to the Greeks Thrice welcome for its interposing gloom." -COWPER, TRANS. OF ILIAD VIII, 488. 21. Orestes-like. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, avenged the death of his father by killing his mother. The Furies chased him for many years through the world until at last he found pardon and peace. The story is told in several Greek plays, but perhaps best in AEschylus' "Libation Pourers" and "Furies" A PSALM of LIFE "I kept it," he said, "some time in manuscript, unwilling to show it to any one, it being a voice from my inmost heart." 7. "Dust thou art": quoted from Genesis 3:19, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 10. Pope in Epistle IV of his "Essay on Man" says: "0 happiness! our being's end and aim." How does Longfellow differ with him? THE SKELETON IN ARMOR The Skeleton in Armor. "The following Ballad was suggested to me while riding on the seashore at Newport. A year or two previous a skeleton had been dug up at Fall River, clad in broken and corroded armor; and the idea occurred to me of connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport, generally known hitherto as the Old Windmill, though now claimed by the Danes as a work of their early ancestors." 19. Skald: a Scandinavian minstrel who composed and sang or recited verses in celebration of famous deeds, heroes, and events. "And there, in many a stormy vale, The Scald had told his wondrous tale." --SCOTT, Lay of the Last Minstrel, can. 6, St. 22. 20. Saga: myth or heroic story. 28. ger-falcon: large falcon, much used in northern Europe in falconry. 38. were-wolf: a person who had taken the form of a wolf and had become a cannibal. The superstition was that those who had voluntarily become wolves could become men again at will. 42. corsair: pirate. Originally "corsair" was applied to privateers off the Barbary Coast who preyed upon Christian shipping under the authority of their governments. 49. "wassail-bout": festivity at which healths are drunk. 53. Berserk. Berserker was a legendary Scandinavian hero who never wore a shirt of mail. In general, a warrior who could assume the form and ferocity of wild beasts, and whom fire and iron could not harm. 94. Sea-mew: a kind of European gull. 110. Skaw: a cape on the coast of Denmark. 159. Skoal!: Hail! a toast or friendly greeting used by the Norse especially in poetry. THE WRECK of THE HESPERUS