Memorable visit to Longfellow's House

Outside the Longfellow house in Portland, Maine, above
and the garden in the rain, left.

Of all the poems written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the bit in Hiawatha's childhood about the gloves the native American child made for himself, has always stayed in my memory, especially when I put on a pair of mittens or help a child put on a pair of mittens. I now know it is typical of this giant among English language poets in that the imagery, the strong rhythm and the use of language combine to create something which echoes a native American's use of the English language. "Of the skin he made him mittens, Made them with the fur side inside, Made them with the skin side outside. He, to get the warm side inside, Put the cold side skin side outside. He, to get the cold side outside, Put the warm side fur side inside. That's why he put the fur side inside, Why he put the skin side outside, Why he turned them inside outside." When we took a guided tour of the Longfellow family home, where the poet spent his childhood, I enjoyed seeing inside a house which had retained so many features and artifacts belonging to that family. Our guide was able to create for me, a picture of their family life. She was a retired teacher and spoke with the clear articulation I was beginning to expect in the Massachusetts and Maine coastal areas. It was a delight to imagine the poet, his mother and other members of his family living there and using some of the furniture which had been placed as if the family had only just left the house. I could almost have been in England, in Kiplings house. I also found out for the first time that Longfellow was a linguist and had travelled and studied widely in Europe. Although it may have been pouring with rain outside. Inside the Longfellow house we were treated to a taste of Longfellow family life which, for me, will be as memorable as the few verses of his Hiawatha poem which have stayed in my memory since my own childhood.