ated Jan. 7, 1840, beginning...as follows:--

"'Your ballad, The Wreck of the Hesperus, is grand. Enclosed are twenty-
five dollars (the sum you mentioned) for it, paid by the proprietors of
The New World, in which glorious paper it will resplendently coruscate on
Saturday next.'"

11. flaw: a sudden puff of wind.

14. Spanish Main: a term applied to that portion of the Caribbean Sea
near the northeast coast of South America, including the route followed
by Spanish merchant ships traveling between Europe and America.

37-48. This little dialogue reminds us of the "Erlkonig," a ballad by
Goethe.

66. See Luke 8: 22-25.

60. Norman's Woe: a reef in", W. Glouster harbor, Mass.

70. carded wool. The process of carding wool, cotton, flax, etc.
removes by a wire-toothed brush foreign matter and dirt, and leaves it
combed out and cleansed.

THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH

7. Crisp, and black, and long. Mr. Longfellow says that before this
poem was published, he read it to his barber. The man objected that
crisp black hair was never long, and as a result the author delayed
publication until be was convinced in his own mind that no other
adjectives would give a truer picture of the blacksmith as he saw him.

39-42. Mr. Longfellow's friends agree that these lines depict his own
industry and temperament better than any others can.

IT IS NOT ALWAYS MAY

No hay pajaros en los nidos de antano. Translated in lines 12 and 24.

8. freighted: heavily laden.

EXCELSIOR

Mr. Longfellow explained fully the allegory of this poem in a letter to
Mr. Henry T. Tuckerman. He said: "This (his intention) was no more than
to display, in a series of pictures, the life of a man of genius,
resisting all temptations, laying aside all fears, heedless of all
warnings, and pressing right on to accomplish his purpose. His motto is
Excelsior, 'higher.' He passes through the Alpine village,--through the
rough, cold paths of the world--where the peasants cannot understand him,
and where his watchword is 'an unknown tongue.' He disregards the
happiness of domestic peace, and sees the glaciers--his fate--before him.
He disregards the warnings of the old man's wisdom.... He answers to
all, 'Higher yet'! The monks of St. Bernard are the representatives of
religious forms and ceremonies, and with their oft-repeated prayer
mingles the sound of his voice, telling them there is something higher
than forms and ceremonies. Filled w