Note 33 — Chapter III · FIRST VENTURES 1838-1844

“[Mrs. Longfellow] was the first stranger that ever said a kind word to me about my poems. She spoke to me of my Year’s Life, then just published. I had then just emerged from the darkest and unhappiest period of my life, and was peculiarly sensitive to sympathy. My volume, I knew, was crude and immature, and did not do me justice; but I knew also that there was a heart in it, and I was grateful for her commendation.”—J. R. L. to H. W. Longfellow, 13 August, 1845.