12. About the Poets

Rabindranath Tagore - Henry Wordsworth Longfellow - Anne Louisa Walker -V K Gokak - Walt Whitman - Douglas Malloch

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads. He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there. In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education. From time to time he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against British policies in India.

Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became the voice of India's spiritual heritage; and for India, especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution.

Although Tagore wrote successfully in all literary genres, he was first of all a poet. Among his fifty and odd volumes of poetry are Manasi (1890) [The Ideal One], Sonar Tari (1894) [The Golden Boat], Gitanjali (1910) [Song Offerings], Gitimalya (1914) [Wreath of Songs], and Balaka (1916) [The Flight of Cranes]. The English renderings of his poetry, which include The Gardener (1913), Fruit-Gathering (1916), and The Fugitive (1921), do not generally correspond to particular volumes in the original Bengali; and in spite of its title, Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), the most acclaimed of them, contains poems from other works besides its namesake. Tagore's major plays are Raja (1910) [The King of the Dark Chamber], Dakghar (1912) [The Post Office], Achalayatan (1912) [The Immovable], Muktadhara (1922) [The Waterfall], and Raktakaravi (1926) [Red Oleanders]. He is the author of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels, among them Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916) [The Home and the World], and Yogayog (1929) [Crosscurrents]. Besides these, he wrote musical dramas, dance dramas, essays of all types, travel diaries, and two autobiographies, one in his middle years and the other shortly before his death in 1941. Tagore also left numerous drawings and paintings, and songs for which he wrote the music himself.

Rabindranath Tagore died on August 7, 1941.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was an influential American poet, translator and professor at Harvard University. Longfellow’s most significant work is, perhaps, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie. During his life time, Longfellow was considered the best of all American poets, and his work was widely translated and published in other European languages: Italian, German and French to note a few. Some view Longfellow’s literary reputation as nearly sacrosanct, yetEdgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman negatively critique his work. Walt Whitmanwould go so far as to accuse Longfellow as merely being an imitator of European forms. Whitman would praise Longfellow almost exclusively on his ability to keep his audience’s favor. He is the only American to be honored with a bust placed in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. declared that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the best of American poets and praised the cheer he was able to display in his writing.

On February 27, 1807, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine. His father, Stephen Longfellow, was a politician and lawyer.

From 1813 until 1821, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow attended the Portland Academy. In 1820, the Portland Gazette published his first poem. Longfellow continued his education at Bowdoin College, an institution for which his father was a trustee. In 1825, Longfellow graduated fourth in his class. Longfellow continued publishing poetry throughout his time in college. During his time at Bowdoin, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow befriended the seminal American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Bowdoin College promised Henry Wadsworth Longfellow a chair in modern languages on the condition that he tour Europe and continue his studies there. From 1826 until 1829, Longfellow traveled through France, Germany, Italy and Spain. This travel had a profound impact on Longfellow. The traces of the tours influence can be seen not only in Longfellow mode of life, but also his choice of subjects.

In 1831, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow married Mary Storer Potter, a woman renowned for her beauty.

Returning to the United States, Bowdoin offered Longfellow a lectureship instead of the promised chair. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow refused this position. But when the college created the chair, Longfellow accepted this position as well as an ancillary position as a librarian. In addition to his work in these positions, Longfellow also worked on translations and edited textbooks in languages. His creative writing also continued and he was a regular contributor to North American Review.

When George Ticknor retired from his positions as Harvard University’s Smith professor of modern languages and belles-lettres, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was offered the position. Longfellow went to Europe a second time to gain a better knowledge of German and Scandinavian languages. His wife accompanied him on this journey. She died in childbirth in Rotterdam. In his grief, Longfellow redoubled his efforts of his study. However, during his travels through Switzerland he would meet his second wife and model for the protagonist of his novel Hyperion, Frances Elizabeth Appleton.

In 1836, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow returned the United States and had taken the position at Harvard. Longfellow earned a reputation as a thoughtful instructor. He invested so much time in his teaching responsibility that he was not as creatively productive as he would have liked to be. Yet even with his investment of labor in teaching, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was able to become a financially successful poet. At one point, Longfellow even set a record by earning $3000 for the poem The Hanging of the Crane. In 1854, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow resigned from his position at Harvard University in favor of his friend, James Russell Lowell, so that Longfellow could spend more time writing.

In 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was to turn his poetic prowess in support of the abolitionist movement. He published Poems for Slavery. Longfellow considered the work to be so unobtrusive that it approached neutrality that even a slave owner would not object to. The New England Anti-Slavery Society would continue to print it in order to further their cause.

Longfellow captures the plight of an enslave people with a delicate pen. At the end of one poem, he declares “[the slave] did not feel the driver's whip,/ Nor the burning heat of day;/ For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep,/ And his lifeless body lay/ A worn-out fetter, that the soul/ Had broken and thrown away!” Longfellow captures the sentiment that death was the only reprieve available for the enslaved African Diaspora of the nineteenth century, which despite Longfellow’s claim “that Slaveholder might read [it] without losing his appetite for breakfast”, still contains a clear social message.

In 1841, Edgar Allan Poe wrote to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Poe praised Henry Wadsworth Longfellow saying that Longfellow was “unquestionably the best poet in America.” Edgar Allan Poe’s criticism changed as Poe’s reputation as a critic increased his praise from Longfellow ebbed. Poe’s public presentation of his criticism of Longfellow culminated with an accusation of plagiarism of Alfred, Lord Tennyson by Longfellow. Despite Poe’s accusations, many critics have interpreted Poe’s accusations as a publicity stunt to garner attention for theBroadway Journal, which Poe edited.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow returned to Europe in 1842. He stayed in Europe into the following year to marry Frances Elizabeth Appleton. Longfellow’s new father-in-law presented the new couple with Craigie House, which at one time was George Washington’s headquarters during the American Revolution. The marriage would last until 1861, when Frances would die tragically. She would inadvertently set her dress on fire while attempting to melt sealing wax.

In 1860, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow composed Paul Revere’s Ride. This poem was composed on the eve of the American Civil War. Longfellow hoped to instill in Northerners a sense of urgency and courageousness. True to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s creative process he wanted to remind his readers of their moral obligations. Many see this poem as an attempt to remind both sides of their moral obligations so that they could remember the tenants of American unity. Although this poem was not entirely historically accurate, it served to create the American legend of Paul Revere, a Massachusetts silversmith who created a system of intelligence and alarm to track the British military during the American Revolution. At one time, Longfellow’s retelling of these events was incorporated into American history textbooks without much mitigation.

As a widower with five young children, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow devoted himself to a programmatic process of translation. His translation of Dante Aligheiri’s Divine Comedy represents the majority of his work in the years after the death of his second wife. The translation is considered overly literal.

In 1868, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow traveled to Europe for the last time. During his travels, celebrities flocked to him. Cambridge awarded Longfellow with an honorary L.L.D., and Oxford awarded him an honorary D.C.L. Despite the renown, Longfellow felt an internal pain. However, he suppressed outward signs the grief and comported himself with a cheery air. He is noted for always consenting to requests for autographs from his fans.

In 1882, Longfellow died suddenly. Ralph Waldo Emerson would give him the epitaph, "This gentleman was a sweet, beautiful soul, but I have entirely forgotten his name." During his lifetime, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the first American writers to achieve international recognition. After his death, Longfellow’s reputation declined quickly. Many view contemporary readers have come to view Longfellow’s work as imitations of standard European forms

Anne Louisa Walker

Anne Louisa Walker, teacher and author; b. c. 1836 in Staffordshire, England, youngest daughter of Robert Walker, a civil engineer, and Anna —; m. 29 Jan. 1884 Harry Coghill (d. 1897) in London, England; they had no children; d. 7 July 1907 in Bath, England.

Annie Louisa Walker came to Lower Canada as a child with her family. They lived first at Pointe-Lévy (Lévis) and then moved in 1858 to Sarnia, Upper Canada, where her father continued to work for the Grand Trunk Railway. That year Annie and her sisters, Isabella and Frances, opened a private girls’ school. A woman who attended it described the sisters thus: “They were very English, very dignified, and somewhat exclusive, but were excellent teachers, especially in the departments of history and English literature. Anna was the . . . best looking. . . . At times her face had a pensive and somewhat dreamy expression. Her manner was gentle and sweet.” On the deaths of Annie’s sisters a few years later, the school closed.

In 1861 Annie, who had been publishing poems in periodicals and newspapers since her teens, brought out a collection by subscription, Leaves from the backwoods, through the Montreal house of John Lovell*. Shortly thereafter she returned to England with her parents, who soon died. She then contacted her second cousin, Mrs Margaret Oliphant, a widow and successful writer, and about 1865 became a member of her extended family. As Mrs Oliphant’s companion-housekeeper from 1866, she cared for the children during her cousin’s frequent prolonged absences, acted as secretary, and looked after proofs and other writing matters. In turn, Margaret Oliphant, although she did not seem to take Annie’s literary ambitions seriously, urged her to shift her interest from poetry to fiction and recommended her to publishers. Between 1873 and 1881 Walker brought out five novels and a volume of plays for children. Following her marriage to a wealthy widower and move to Staffordshire, Annie did not give up writing completely; she published one more novel, at least one story, and a second book of poetry.

Of the works in that collection of poems, Oak and maple: English and Canadian verses (1890), two-thirds had appeared in Leaves. Her poems are largely about religion or nature. The most effective are those characterized by unpretentious phrasing and directness of expression, but most are conventional in diction, form, and subject matter. At times her nature poems are close to transcendental in their expression of the spiritual in nature. The lyrics of the well-known hymn “Work, for the night is coming” derive from her poem “The night cometh,” which first appeared in Leaves. In Oak and maple she remarks on discovering the verses in a hymn-book, but without accreditation. The meditative poem “In the Canadian backwoods” makes the frequent complaint of poets about the lack of a mythology in a new land and notes the absence of nymphs in the Canadian woods, suggesting that it is simply too cold for them there.

Walker’s first novel, A Canadian heroine (1873), is set in a locale familiar to the author, a small town on the St Lawrence River. The innocence of the New World is set against the superficiality and corruption of the Old when the 16-year-old heroine almost loses her Canadian suitor because of her infatuation with a visiting English aristocrat, who proves to be unreliable. An element of the Gothic is present in the mystery surrounding the heroine’s birth; her father is discovered to be a Jesuit-educated Indian, from whom her mother ran away after he became drunken and abusive. When discovered, her mixed-blood status is accepted by her neighbours and lover. Walker’s later novels are set in England and, with one exception, have female perspectives. In the most interesting of them, Against her will (1877), the protagonist is a young woman coping with the problems thrust upon her by her father’s fragile health. She is portrayed as intelligent, responsible, and more capable than any of the male characters – a forerunner of the later–19th-century’s “new woman.”

Walker’s writing career began in Canada and her most telling poems are the Canadian nature poems written in her youth. The best known of her verses, however, are the lyrics of “Work, for the night is coming.” In A Canadian heroineshe was an early exponent of the international theme of the New World versus the Old, which American Henry James was to popularize later and Canadian Sara Jeannette Duncan* was to employ in the 1890s.

 

Vinayaka Krishna Gokak ( V.K. Gokak): 1909-1992

was born on August 9, 1909 at Gokak. He had his primary and high school education in Savanur, and took B.A. in 1929 and M.A. in 1931. he began his career as an Assistant Professor in Fergusson College, Pune and later he became the principal of D.E.Society's Willington College, Sangli. In 1936, he done his advanced studies with distinction at Oxford university. In 1946, he went to Rajasthan and set up a college in its desert region and in 1949, with the reorganisation of Indian states, his services in Rajasthan got transferred to the Government of Bombay and he became the principal of Karnataka College, Kolhapur, in 1952. He appointed as the Vice-chancellor of the Bangalore University in 1966.

The main phase of his literary career and his life itself began in 1925 when he was swayed by the magnetic force of the towering figure of Kannada poetry D.R.Bendre. He given unparallelled contributions to poetry (including composition of the epic Bharatha Sindhurashmi), drama, criticism and various other forms of literature, apart from producing many scholarly works in English.

Honours and awards:

1. Presidentship of the 40th Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in 1958.

2. Honorary doctorates from the Karnatak University.

3. Honorary doctorates from the Pacific University of the USA.

4. Central Sahitya Akademi award for his 'Dyava Prithivi' in 1961.

5. Jnanpith award-for his Bharatha sindhu rashmi, in 1990.

Works:

1. Bharatha sinDhu rashmi

2. Samarasave jeevana

3. Oornanaaba

4. Abyudaya

5. Baaladeguladalli

6. Dhyava pruthvi

7. Samudra geethegaLu

Born on May 31, 1819, Walt Whitman was the second son of Walter Whitman, a housebuilder, and Louisa Van Velsor. The family, which consisted of nine children, lived in Brooklyn and Long Island in the 1820s and 1830s.

At the age of twelve, Whitman began to learn the printer’s trade, and fell in love with the written word. Largely self-taught, he read voraciously, becoming acquainted with the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the Bible.

Whitman worked as a printer in New York City until a devastating fire in the printing district demolished the industry. In 1836, at the age of seventeen, he began his career as teacher in the one-room school houses of Long Island. He continued to teach until 1841, when he turned to journalism as a full-time career.

He founded a weekly newspaper, Long-Islander, and later edited a number of Brooklyn and New York papers. In 1848, Whitman left the Brooklyn Daily Eagle to become editor of the New Orleans Crescent. It was in New Orleans that he experienced firsthand the viciousness of slavery in the slave markets of that city. On his return to Brooklyn in the fall of 1848, he founded a “free soil” newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman, and continued to develop the unique style of poetry that later so astonished Ralph Waldo Emerson.

In 1855, Whitman took out a copyright on the first edition ofLeaves of Grass, which consisted of twelve untitled poems and a preface. He published the volume himself, and sent a copy to Emerson in July of 1855. Whitman released a second edition of the book in 1856, containing thirty-three poems, a letter from Emerson praising the first edition, and a long open letter by Whitman in response. During his lifetime, Whitman continued to refine the volume, publishing several more editions of the book. Noted Whitman scholar, M. Jimmie Killingsworth writes that “the ‘merge,' as Whitman conceived it, is the tendency of the individual self to overcome moral, psychological, and political boundaries. Thematically and poetically, the notion dominates the three major poems of 1855: ‘I Sing the Body Electric,' ‘The Sleepers,' and ‘Song of Myself,' all of which were ‘merged’ in the first edition under the single title Leaves of Grass but were demarcated by clear breaks in the text and the repetition of the title.”

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Whitman vowed to live a “purged” and “cleansed” life. He worked as a freelance journalist and visited the wounded at New York City–area hospitals. He then traveled to Washington, D. C. in December 1862 to care for his brother who had been wounded in the war.

Overcome by the suffering of the many wounded in Washington, Whitman decided to stay and work in the hospitals and stayed in the city for eleven years. He took a job as a clerk for the Department of the Interior, which ended when the Secretary of the Interior, James Harlan, discovered that Whitman was the author of Leaves of Grass, which Harlan found offensive. Harlan fired the poet.

Whitman struggled to support himself through most of his life. In Washington, he lived on a clerk’s salary and modest royalties, and spent any excess money, including gifts from friends, to buy supplies for the patients he nursed. He had also been sending money to his widowed mother and an invalid brother. From time to time writers both in the states and in England sent him “purses” of money so that he could get by.

In the early 1870s, Whitman settled in Camden, New Jersey, where he had come to visit his dying mother at his brother’s house. However, after suffering a stroke, Whitman found it impossible to return to Washington. He stayed with his brother until the 1882 publication of Leaves of Grass (James R. Osgood) gave Whitman enough money to buy a home in Camden.

In the simple two-story clapboard house, Whitman spent his declining years working on additions and revisions to a new edition of the book and preparing his final volume of poems and prose, Good-Bye, My Fancy (David McKay, 1891). After his death on March 26, 1892, Whitman was buried in a tomb he designed and had built on a lot in Harleigh Cemetery.

Along with Emily Dickinson, he is considered one of America’s most important poets.

 

Douglas Malloch

Douglas Malloch became known as the “Lumbermen’s Poet,” both locally and on the national scene.  Born in Muskegon on May 5, 1877, he grew up amidst logging camps, sawmills and lumber yards.  Naturally, Malloch came to love the forests and began writing of lumbering scenes.

            At age ten, Malloch delivered newspapers for the Muskegon Chronicle.  About that time he wrote his first poem and it was published in the Detroit News. After leaving school he took a job on the editorial staff at the Muskegon Chronicle.  He remained with the newspaper for 13 years, becoming a reporter and feature writer.  During that period he got to know Charles Hackley quite well. 

            In 1903, Malloch joined the staff of American Lumberman, a trade paper in Chicago.  There he wrote a syndicated column.  Often his weekly columns took the form of a poem.  He developed into a nationally renowned humorist, lecturer and radio personality.  Many of his poems were eventually collected into a series of books.  His book “In Forest Land,” became a best seller and was reprinted several times

            Much of Malloch’s poetry drew on the solace of the forest as a cure for life’s difficulties. 

            “Get up in the timber; the trail and the trees

            Will make you a man in a day.

            The smell of the soil and the breath of the trees

            Will blow all your troubles away.

            There’s pine for you, wine for you, hope for you there—

            The sun and the moon and the star—

            If the ways of the city are not on the square,

            Get up in the woods—where they are.”

                                                 (from the publication Timber and Plywood)

            Probably Malloch’s best know poem was titled “Today,” a 27-line ode to making the best of life’s daily storms and troubles.

            Over the years as a guest lecturer, Malloch traveled over a million miles, addressing trade conventions, business groups and social welfare organizations.  He displayed a homespun philosophy and a genial sense of humor.

            One of Malloch’s best know poems locally was “This Thing That Men Call Death,” which he wrote as a eulogy and memorial tribute upon the death of Charles Hackley in 1905.

            In 1911, members of the Chicago Press Club named Malloch president of their organization.  On March 9, 1912, Malloch personally welcomed the President of the United States, William Howard Taft, to a reception in Chicago sponsored by the Press Club.

            Mr. Malloch married Bertha Keillor of Muskegon in 1898.  She died June 30, 1933. 

            Douglas Malloch died of a heart attack July 2, 1938, at age 61.  At the time of his death he served as the managing editor of American Lumberman.   He left behind two daughters and a son.    (Except as noted, the above descriptions were taken from local newspaper accounts.)

All the best......