Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is one of our best-known poets. He composed poems that have become a part of national consciousness such as “The Courtship of Miles Standish,” “Paul Revere’s Ride,” and “The Song of Hiawatha,” and many others. He had a reputation as a kind, calm, gentle person, yet many who met him did not realize the tragedy that filled much of his life.

Longfellow was born in Maine but moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts as a young man. He joined the faculty of Harvard University where he taught until 1854. By that point he was earning enough income from his published writings that he no longer needed the income from Harvard.

Longfellow’s first wife, Mary, died in 1835 from complications after a miscarriage after only four years of marriage. He did not marry again until a number of years later. His second wife, Frances, died in 1861 after her dress caught fire in their home. Wadsworth attempted to put out the fire and his face was badly burned. This prompted him to grow a beard to hide the scars. Anyone familiar with Longfellow will immediately think of his bushy white beard and hair. His health also caused him physical pain. He suffered from neuralgia, which caused constant pain.

A quote attributed to Longfellow, although I cannot find the source is this: “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” He certainly had more than his share of tragedy, and his secret history was full of pain. After his second wife’s death he became more reclusive and suffered from depression which colored the rest of his life until his death in 1882.  He occasionally resorted to laudanum and ether to get through.

This isn’t meant to be a literary article, however. The point is that each person has experienced pain in his or her life, and each of us carries the scars with us each day. Nobody likes to reveal all of that, however, and it sometimes is easy to assume that they do not carry any emotional burdens because a person is not verbal about them.

It’s important to take this into account when encountering others. Each one of us knows what we ourselves live with, but we don’t always see the “secret history” that the other person carries around. If we could read those secret histories we might be more sympathetic of the other person’s burdens.

There is more to every one of us that what meets the eye. Remembering this will enrich our lives together tremendously.