Tea at Trianon: Longfellow's Hiawatha

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Longfellow's Hiawatha

Poetry is back in style. Via the LRC.

Here is the epic poem. And here is an excerpt:

Ye who love the haunts of Nature,
Love the sunshine of the meadow,
Love the shadow of the forest,
Love the wind among the branches,
And the rain-shower and the snow-storm,
And the rushing of great rivers
Through their palisades of pine-trees,
And the thunder in the mountains,
Whose innumerable echoes
Flap like eagles in their eyries;-
Listen to these wild traditions,
To this Song of Hiawatha! Share

3 comments:

Michelle Therese said...: I remember reading that when I was a kid in Massachusetts!; May 29, 2007 at 12:51:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...: "By the shores of Gitchigumee, by the Shining Big Sea Waters." When I finally had the thrill of looking out onto Lake Superior I thought of that poem. Do they read beautiful poetry in school anymore? Not being exposed to the beauty of the written word could be why there is so much morally revolting behavior.; May 29, 2007 at 10:14:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, when the mind is filled with ugliness, the behavior is ugly. It is so important, especially for the young, to have their minds filled with beauty.; May 30, 2007 at 6:09:00 PM EDT