y-four minor authors, headed by
Longfellow.{77} We have already seen Lowell, from a younger point of
view, describing Longfellow, at about this time, as the head of a
"clique," and we now find Andrews Norton, from an older point of view,
assigning him only the first place among authors of the second grade. It
is curious to notice, in addition, that Hawthorne stood next to
Longfellow in this subordinate roll.

Longfellow published two volumes of poetic selections, "The Waif" (1845)
and "The Estray" (1846), the latter title being originally planned as
"Estrays in the Forest," and he records a visit to the college library,
in apparent search for the origin of the phrase. His next volume of
original poems, however, was "The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems,"
published December 23, 1845, the contents having already been partly
printed in "Graham's Magazine," and most of them in the illustrated
edition of his poems published in Philadelphia. The theme of the volume
appears to have been partly suggested by some words in a letter to
Freiligrath which seem to make the leading poem, together with that
called "Nuremberg," a portion of that projected series of
travel-sketches which had haunted Longfellow ever since "Outre-Mer."
"The Norman Baron" was the result of a passage from Thierry, sent him by
an unknown correspondent. One poem was suggested by a passage in
Andersen's "Story of my Life," and one was written at Boppard on the
Rhine. All the rest were distinctly American in character or origin.
Another poem, "To the Driving Cloud," the chief of the Omaha Indians,
was his first effort at hexameters and prepared the way for
"Evangeline." His translation of the "Children of the Lord's Supper" had
also served by way of preparation; and he had happened upon a specimen
in "Blackwood's Magazine" of the hexameter translation of the "Iliad"
which had impressed him very much. He even tried a passage of
"Evangeline" rendered into English pentameter verse, and thus satisfied
himself that it was far less effective for his purpose than the measure
finally adopted.

There is no doubt that the reading public at large has confirmed the
opinion of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes when he says, "Of the longer poems
of our chief singer, I should not hesitate to select 'Evangeline' as the
masterpiece, and I think the general verdict of opinion would confirm my
choice.... From the first line of the poem, from its first words, we
read as we would float do