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| Artists of all kinds grant credence to the reality of one's MUSE in obtaining inspiration for one's best work. |
Chapter 3
Mentoring Psalmists
Aside from the celestial assistance of one's Muse, to Whom I gratefully acknowledge for the inspiration, organization, and perhaps most importantly—the timing—of my work, all are indebted to erstwhile bards of the mortal variety, whose genius, along with the help of their own Muses, infiltrated their souls with the rhythms and rhymes, features and forms, messages and meanings that strike living, breathing, artistic chords within and without for the benefit and blessing of others and the joy and satisfaction of oneself.
Such literary resonances infuse many newcomers, like myself, with a penchant for poetical procreation. Some fledgling artists seek to spawn their own, unprecedented, original forms into the compositional cosmos. Others are more content with carrying on within the confines of conventionality. Star struck by the augustness of the orthodox traditionalists, I seek to build upon the firm foundations of former times in an attempt to extend the reach and power of antiquated templates into original, contemporary offerings.
"Poetry ... achieves its characteristic concision and intensity by acknowledging how words have been used before. Poems do not exist in isolation but share and exploit the history and literature of the language in which they are written. Although each new poem seeks to create a kind of temporary perfection in and of itself, it accomplishes this goal by recognizing the reader's lifelong experience with words, images, symbols, stories, sounds, and ideas outside of its own texts" (2).
Readers of my poetry will notice certain prosodic and thematic similarities to the work of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Longfellow, Dickinson, Poe, Frost, and other English language masters of the past 500 years. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then flattering my mentors has been and will likely continue to be my cherished poetic pastime.
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| A Contemplative Wordsworth |
On the other hand, some of my imitation is both explicit and intentional, such as my inverse echo of Wordsworth's sonnet: The world is too much with us, where I invoke a philosophical conversation across the centuries while simultaneously conducting self-psychotherapy aimed at improving my own mental hygiene as I pontificate and versify on the counterintuitive woes of the world being not enough with me, NOW.
In other instances, I have precisely aped the rhythm and/or rhyme of a given poem from the past with my own new language and message simply because I adore the prosodic patterns of a given piece.
It is my own way of paying homage to the grand ole masters.
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| The Granddaddy of them all... And the Master General of Sonnetry |
In my mind, what is the use of attempting to improve upon an already perfect template? If an engine is already ideal, why not further utilize it to craft new messages with meanings for the benefit of contemporary readers?
On the pages that precede and follow, I list some of the poets who have influenced both my philosophical musings and poetical compositions. While certainly not a comprehensive list of bards who have influenced my life and career, it does provide a meaty sampling of the best-of-the-best I have been blessed to be mentored by.
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| Longfellow in middle-age ~ the days before his iconic white beard. |
Click HERE to read more about Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in A Civil War Miracle.
After Bowdoin, Longfellow spent two decades on faculty at Harvard before retiring to write full-time, although he would continue to live in Cambridge for the rest of his life. Unlike many traditional poets—then or now—Longfellow's poetry was enormously successful, bringing him unusual quantities of fame, financial remuneration, and literary acclaim.
Despite enjoying this dreamy career filled with accolades, attention, honor, and money, he faced great trials in his life, most notably of which were the deaths of both his first and second wives. The first, Mary Potter, passed away from a miscarriage after only a few years of marriage. He pursued his second wife, Frances (Fanny) Appleton for seven (7) long years before she finally agreed to marry him. They had six (6) children together. Tragically, however, Fanny would pass away 18 years later due to complications incurred from a tragic accident involving her dress accidentally catching fire. Longfellow's grew his trademark (and very famous) beard in part to cover scars he incurred himself while trying to save his wife from the flames. Both of these deaths deeply scarred Longfellow, and Fanny's tragic accidental death was particularly devastating to him.
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| Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet preparing the Emancipation Proclamation |
During the war, he composed one of his most famous poems—I Heard the Bells—which was later put to music by John Baptiste Calkin (1827-1905) and has since become a popular Christmas Carol. Longfellow composed the poem on Christmas Day in 1863, shortly after his son, Charles—a Union soldier—had been wounded in combat in Northern Virginia. A full-length feature film—I Heard the Bells—was released in 2022 capturing this moving story in the life of Longfellow and his family.
Click HERE to watch the movie trailer for I Heard the Bells about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
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| An elderly Longfellow as he is typically remembered |
Outliving his beloved Fanny by over two decades, Longfellow passed away at his home in Cambridge, Massachussetts in 1882 at age 75. He was buried next to his two wives.
Longfellow's dearth of contemporary critical acclaim is contrasted by his enormous success and popularity during his own life—and well after. In the words of Dana Gioia:
"[Longfellow] is ... not an author for ambitious [contemporary] critics to write about. Few recent books on American poetry mention Longfellow except in passing; [and] almost none discuss him at any length. ...
"[In his own day, however] Longfellow was not merely the most popular American poet who ever lived, but he also enjoyed a type of fame almost impossible to imagine by contemporary standards. His books not only sold well enough to make him rich; they sold so consistently that he eventually became the most popular living author in any genre in nineteenth-century America. ...
"[And his] fame was not limited to the United States. He was the first American poet to achieve an international reputation. England hailed him as the New World's first great bard. His admirers included Charles Dickens, William Gladstone, ... [and] the the British royal family and their notoriously anti-American poet laureate, Alfred Tennyson. ... In England, he eventually outsold Tennyson and Browning. ...
"Three years after his death Longfellow's bust was unveiled in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, the first and only time an American poet has received this honor. [Moreover, his] popularity did not prevent him from receiving the esteem of literati; in his lifetime they generally regarded him as the most distinguished poet America has produced. ...
"[To top it all off] Longfellow's fame was not merely literary. His poetry exercised a broad cultural influence that today seems more typical of movies or popular music than anything we might imagine possible for poetry" (3).
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| Longfellow in his study Cambridge, Massachusetts Circa 1870s |
I am no Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Keats, Longfellow, or Poe. Nevertheless, it is my hope that perhaps some of the simple and heartfelt lays that have gushed from [the] heart of this humbler poet, might nonetheless find an audience seeking something similar amidst the craziness of our metamodernist era—so full-to-overflowing with chaos, cacophony, and crassness.
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In so doing, I hope in some small way to satiate longings, soothe restless feelings, and banish the cares of readers along their own great journeys through love and life. I also hope to poetically elucidate some of the private, psychological hell I've battled—and continue to battle—throughout my career and life. Perhaps some of this verse will encourage and inspire others to noble actions, habits, dispositions, humility, and endurance along the circuitous corridors and precarious pathways of their own life's treacherous journey (5).
—Dr. JJ
Author's Note: This is the 324th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 149th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 323 FF Blog Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS
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Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.
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