te Theophilus Parsons, but edited at that
time by James G. Carter, of Boston, well known in connection with the
history of public schools. Apparently Longfellow must have offered poems
to the "Gazette" anonymously, for one of his classmates records that
when he met Mr. Carter in Boston the editor asked with curiosity what
young man sent him such fine poetry from Bowdoin College. A modest
volume of "Miscellaneous Poems, selected from the 'United States
Literary Gazette,'" appeared in 1826,--the year after Longfellow left
college,--and it furnished by far the best exhibit of the national
poetry up to that time. The authors represented were Bryant, Longfellow,
Percival, Dawes, Mellen, and Jones; and it certainly offered a curious
contrast to that equally characteristic volume of 1794, the "Columbian
Muse," whose poets were Barlow, Trumbull, Freneau, Dwight, Humphreys,
and a few others, not a single poem or poet being held in common by the
two collections.

This was, however, only a volume of extracts, but it is the bound
volumes of the "Gazette" itself--beginning with April 1, 1824--which
most impress the student of early American literature. There will always
be a charm in turning over the pages where one sees, again and again,
the youthful poems of Bryant and of Longfellow placed side by side and
often put together on the same page, the young undergraduate's effusions
being always designated by his initials and Bryant's with a perhaps more
dignified "B.," denoting one whose reputation was to a certain extent
already established, so that a hint was sufficient. Bryant's poems, it
must be owned, are in this case very much better or at least maturer
than those of his youthful rival, and are preserved in his published
works, while Longfellow's are mainly those which he himself dropped,
though they are reprinted in the appendix to Mr. Scudder's "Cambridge"
edition of his poems. We find thus in the "Literary Gazette," linked
together on the same page, Longfellow's "Autumnal Nightfall" and
Bryant's "Song of the Grecian Amazon;" Longfellow's "Italian Scenery"
and Bryant's "To a Cloud;" Longfellow's "Lunatic Girl" and Bryant's "The
Murdered Traveller."{4} How the older poet was impressed by the work of
the younger we cannot tell, but it is noticeable that in editing a
volume of selected American poetry not long after, he assigns to
Longfellow, as will presently be seen, a very small space. It is to be
remembered that Bryant had pr