After many days he
inscribed in it the following lines from Tennyson's poem addressed to
James Spedding:--
"Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace.
Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul!
While the stars burn, the moons increase,
And the great ages onward roll."
His friends were glad when he turned to his work again, and still more
glad when he showed a desire for their interest in what he was doing.
It was not long before he began to busy himself continuously with his
translation of the "Divina Commedia," and in my diary of 1863, two
years later, I find:--
"_August._--A delightful day with Longfellow at Nahant. He read
aloud the last part of his new volume of poems, in which each one of a
party of friends tells a story. Ole Bull, Parsons, Monti, and several
other characters are introduced."
"_September_ 1st.--A cold storm by the seashore, but there was
great pleasure in town in the afternoon. Longfellow, Paine, Dwight,
and Fields went to hear Walcker play the new organ in the Music Hall
for the first time since its erection. Afterwards they all dined
together. Longfellow comes in from Cambridge every day, and sometimes
twice a day, to see George Sumner, who is dying at the Massachusetts
General Hospital."
"_September_ 19th.--Longfellow and his friend George W. Greene,
Charles Sumner, and Dempster the singer, came in for an early dinner.
A very cosy, pleasant little party. The afternoon was cool, and
everybody was in kindly humor.
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