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Fanny Appleton to Matilda Lieber, 10 June 1843
Manuscript letter
Boston. June 10th 1843
My dearest friends
I thank you warmly for your cordial congratulations, which I should have claimed before they were offered, if I had thought it would grieve you so much to hear of my happiness thro’ another. I was not too happy to write, for such joy as mine enlarges the heart to love all better & to remember especially those friends whose sympathy is ever dear, but I was nearly drowned in the congratulatory visits & notes of our mutual friends, & when Mary Sumner came & offered to act as my scribe to you I accepted her offer gratefully, that you might not learn at first from strangers. Then I delayed writing to thank you for the kind words I knew would shortly reach me. Forgive me for this seeming neglect, will you not, Matilda? If your poet is still angry in spite of his amiable verses which have been interpreted to me by mine, - a very merciful dragoman, & for which my best blushes & thanks I may offer him, I shall leave it to your woman’s heart to pacify him. You wish to know all [p. 2] I am feeling. I would willingly unveil my soul to so true a friend to two such true friends, - but how can it utter, the unutterable? how reveal the fathomless sea a merciful Father has unsealed within its depths? I can only say it is wholly satisfied in loving & being loved, is blessed beyond its brightest dream; - that all life is transfigured, that past years are swept away like withered leaves, & yet their teachings & experiences remain to deepen & enrich my present felicity But all this you will say every one feels & believes at such a time. Yet every one thinks no other mortal was ever [crossed out: so] half as happy. Many have flattered themselves they were as fully blessed as I know myself to be but I am sure they deluded themselves! You have known the rare happiness of a perfect union & will understand me when I say that. It is not common for two to meet in this world every portion of whose natures harmonize. Ours have long been fused into one, & after many separations, good discipline for both have at last discovered they were unseparable. I have often thought, dear Matilda, that [p. 3] after our girlish illusions became tarnished the freshness of our life was ineffably gone, that we could enjoy deeply but never with that May-day joyousness or delicious & full of infinity.
But the soul is not so poorly, scantily clothed with hope & happiness. Having little connexion with Time it is immortally young to love - & mine is wandering in its new world as if it were newly created -, so strong in trust & hope, - yet, more thankful than a child because appreciating better the boon of life.
I deeply feel all the sacredness of my new trust – a poet’s heart is the holiest of gifts, & its light shall never faint in my keeping. God grant that I may aid & never dim, its as firing flame. We intend to live a poem giving the world here & there a leaf possibly. My future home will be Cambridge, within the walls hallowed by Washingtons presence formerly & out looking upon as vast a plain as did his spirit. How proud & happy I shall be to welcome you there & show you my “poet’s corner,” sacred to the burned woes of Bachelordom. Sumner has perhaps told you how his Club love each other, - they have greeted me like brothers - & in all of them is there much to value & admire Sumner is perhaps nearer our hearts than any – what a noble nature & how true a soul [p. 4] belong to him. He richly deserves & could fstly appreciate the blessing of a happy home & I trust will soon find it. I am rejoiced, dear Matilda, that you have the hope of coming North for the summer & I am just now very busy but will try to find out if there are any practicable places for you. How strange a thing [crossed out: it will be] for us to be again face to face, but from what you say I fear it may not be this year. I have heard of my brother’s arrival in England & Mary’s joy in welcoming him, tho’ sorely disappointed that I was not there. Poor girl! I am very anxious to hear good news of her but cannot hope for them quite yet. She was to be confined about the middle of May - & I fear will be hardly strong enough to receive the announcement of my engagement as firmly as I should wish. It will seem to her a second parting & yet she will rejoice with me fervently. I have new sisters, & very charming ones I hear to know & love, but shall ever hope Mary will return to us. She has not been able to write or she wd not have neglected you; - pray excuse her for she is as true to you as ever, tho’ not to her pen. We are in the impending honors, here, of a Tyler visitation, & a Bunker hill oration & an entire annihilation from the crush of ‘outside barbarans [sic].’ A second battle will be fought on the 17th to gain the hill & hear Mr Websters thunder instead of that of cannon. Such forced hospitality from people who despise their present President [p. 1 cross] is distasteful eno’ to our Whig gentlemen. Many kisses to the children, & again thanking you for your kind sympathy & the love which prompted it I am as ever
Yr affte & true
Fanny E A
Please enclose yr letters to Father, do not direct merely but enclose them, for his franking privelege [sic] last happily until October
My dearest friends
I thank you warmly for your cordial congratulations, which I should have claimed before they were offered, if I had thought it would grieve you so much to hear of my happiness thro’ another. I was not too happy to write, for such joy as mine enlarges the heart to love all better & to remember especially those friends whose sympathy is ever dear, but I was nearly drowned in the congratulatory visits & notes of our mutual friends, & when Mary Sumner came & offered to act as my scribe to you I accepted her offer gratefully, that you might not learn at first from strangers. Then I delayed writing to thank you for the kind words I knew would shortly reach me. Forgive me for this seeming neglect, will you not, Matilda? If your poet is still angry in spite of his amiable verses which have been interpreted to me by mine, - a very merciful dragoman, & for which my best blushes & thanks I may offer him, I shall leave it to your woman’s heart to pacify him. You wish to know all [p. 2] I am feeling. I would willingly unveil my soul to so true a friend to two such true friends, - but how can it utter, the unutterable? how reveal the fathomless sea a merciful Father has unsealed within its depths? I can only say it is wholly satisfied in loving & being loved, is blessed beyond its brightest dream; - that all life is transfigured, that past years are swept away like withered leaves, & yet their teachings & experiences remain to deepen & enrich my present felicity But all this you will say every one feels & believes at such a time. Yet every one thinks no other mortal was ever [crossed out: so] half as happy. Many have flattered themselves they were as fully blessed as I know myself to be but I am sure they deluded themselves! You have known the rare happiness of a perfect union & will understand me when I say that. It is not common for two to meet in this world every portion of whose natures harmonize. Ours have long been fused into one, & after many separations, good discipline for both have at last discovered they were unseparable. I have often thought, dear Matilda, that [p. 3] after our girlish illusions became tarnished the freshness of our life was ineffably gone, that we could enjoy deeply but never with that May-day joyousness or delicious & full of infinity.
But the soul is not so poorly, scantily clothed with hope & happiness. Having little connexion with Time it is immortally young to love - & mine is wandering in its new world as if it were newly created -, so strong in trust & hope, - yet, more thankful than a child because appreciating better the boon of life.
I deeply feel all the sacredness of my new trust – a poet’s heart is the holiest of gifts, & its light shall never faint in my keeping. God grant that I may aid & never dim, its as firing flame. We intend to live a poem giving the world here & there a leaf possibly. My future home will be Cambridge, within the walls hallowed by Washingtons presence formerly & out looking upon as vast a plain as did his spirit. How proud & happy I shall be to welcome you there & show you my “poet’s corner,” sacred to the burned woes of Bachelordom. Sumner has perhaps told you how his Club love each other, - they have greeted me like brothers - & in all of them is there much to value & admire Sumner is perhaps nearer our hearts than any – what a noble nature & how true a soul [p. 4] belong to him. He richly deserves & could fstly appreciate the blessing of a happy home & I trust will soon find it. I am rejoiced, dear Matilda, that you have the hope of coming North for the summer & I am just now very busy but will try to find out if there are any practicable places for you. How strange a thing [crossed out: it will be] for us to be again face to face, but from what you say I fear it may not be this year. I have heard of my brother’s arrival in England & Mary’s joy in welcoming him, tho’ sorely disappointed that I was not there. Poor girl! I am very anxious to hear good news of her but cannot hope for them quite yet. She was to be confined about the middle of May - & I fear will be hardly strong enough to receive the announcement of my engagement as firmly as I should wish. It will seem to her a second parting & yet she will rejoice with me fervently. I have new sisters, & very charming ones I hear to know & love, but shall ever hope Mary will return to us. She has not been able to write or she wd not have neglected you; - pray excuse her for she is as true to you as ever, tho’ not to her pen. We are in the impending honors, here, of a Tyler visitation, & a Bunker hill oration & an entire annihilation from the crush of ‘outside barbarans [sic].’ A second battle will be fought on the 17th to gain the hill & hear Mr Websters thunder instead of that of cannon. Such forced hospitality from people who despise their present President [p. 1 cross] is distasteful eno’ to our Whig gentlemen. Many kisses to the children, & again thanking you for your kind sympathy & the love which prompted it I am as ever
Yr affte & true
Fanny E A
Please enclose yr letters to Father, do not direct merely but enclose them, for his franking privelege [sic] last happily until October
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-013#009
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Courtesy of National Park Service, Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site; Archives Number 1011/002.001-013#009
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Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1843 (1011/002.001-013), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1843 (1011/002.001-013), (LONG-FileUnitName)
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Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Code: LONG
Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Latitude: 42.3769989013672, Longitude: -71.1264038085938
Latitude: 42.3769989013672, Longitude: -71.1264038085938
NPS Museum Number Catalog : LONG 20257
Title: Finding Aid to the Frances Elizabeth Appleton Longfellow (1817-1861) Papers, 1825-1961 (bulk dated: 1832-1861)
URL: https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/archives.htm#FEAL
URL: https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/archives.htm#FEAL
Unknown
06/10/1843
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1843. (1011/002.001-013#009)
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Organization: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
Address: 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: LONG_archives@nps.gov
Address: 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: LONG_archives@nps.gov
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