Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)

STUDIES - Lehel Vadon: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Hungary

Academy of Arts and Sciences on October 6, 1884 he analyzed the reflexive and ethico-religious elements of Longfellow's poetry.

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4 Due to changes of literary tastes of post-1900 America Longfellow fell out of the twentieth century readers' favor and only anthologies and school books ensured his survival in the public conscience. While the significance of Longfellow's literary achievements is beyond dispute, his creative efforts fade into obsolescence as his poems disappeared from the pages of Hungarian literary journals and he was celebrated only at so-called "great anniversaries". In 1907 in honor of the one hundredth anniversary of Longfellow's birth Antal Radó wrote a commemorative article for the Vasárnapi Újság. In his estimation "the erstwhile popular poet did not rank among the giants of literary spirit as he was not a golden tongued bard with soaring imagination and penetrating vision, or a majestic genius, an 'os magna sonaturum', but one of the less significant poets of world literature." Radó sorely missed traces of originality, an "American style" especially in Longfellow's narrative and epic poems arguing that the poefs fame would only be preserved by "those heart stirring, sweet tongued songs where his noble and puritan soul proclaimed the loftiest wisdom without a false note or a pose singing the Psalm of Life"

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5. Dezső Kosztolányi could only voice his discontent in the Hét and pointed to a few ballads such as the Excelsior, the Evangeline and a fraction of Hiawatha in his commemorative article. "Although Longfellow's poetry sounds as clear as the churchbell, he is only our Sunday entertainment, a delightful afternoon reading to curl up with after a busy day."

16 Nonetheless Kosztolányi grudgingly acknowledged that Longfellow's everlasting fame had been due to his perfection of style. Professor Arthur Yolland was likely to have been influenced by the Longfellow anniversary in his offer to present a weekly one hour lecture at 1

4 Béla Szász, "A reflexiv és vallás-erkölcsi elem a költészetben s Longfellow," Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Értekezései a Nyelv- és Széptudomány Köréből, (1884): pp. 3—43. 1

5 Antal Radó, "Longfellow évszázados ünnepén," Vasárnapi Újság, 8 (1907): pp. 147—148. 1

6 Lehotai (Dezső Kosztolányi), "Longfellow," A Hét, 9 (1907): p. 143. — The same article: Dezső Kosztolányi, Ércnél maradandóbb (Budapest: Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, 1975), pp. 103—105. 133