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The tradition of writing a school song was an occasion the class of 11 girls and two boys faced with “mingled pleasure and anxiety,” says a letter sent to Longfellow that has been preserved through the years, along with the poet’s decline.
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Robbie Knowles, 18, looks at a portrait of Hal Buck, a member of the WSHS class of 1880, that wrote a letter to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow asking him to write their commencement song. Harry Buck of Winona, Hal’s grandson, presented Longfellow’s response to WSHS Thursday.
(Photo by Melissa Carlo/Winona Daily News) |
Harry Buck, whose grandfather Hal Buck was a member of the 1880 class and received Longfellow’s response, presented the 128-year-old correspondence to WSHS Thursday. The letters had remained in the family, along with other historical correspondences and pictures, and were passed on to Buck.
In the letter to Longfellow, Winona students implored him for help, saying they were not “sufficiently inspired” to write an appropriate poem. Longfellow responded that he could not write a song for them, as it must come from a student.
“If it came from any foreign source, it would lose all its value,” read Longfellow’s response.
A 1948 graduate of Winona High School, Buck felt the letters belonged in the school so that the students had a perspective on their history and would learn the value of preservation. Buck told the class that the electronic age we live in will likely prevent future generations from unearthing treasures like this.
“If a relative came along and wondered what people in 2008 were like, how would they know,” Buck asked literature students taught by Laura Armstrong and Kristin Bergaus.
While the poet’s brief response could be discouraging to some, Buck and James Armstrong, Winona’s poet laureate, who came to the class to read the letter and add historical perspective, felt otherwise. Armstrong said Longfellow’s statement that the class song must come from within was a fitting response from a man whom many consider the first to create a distinctive native literature in America.
“It’s very American advice to say the song must come from you,” said Armstrong.
Though Longfellow declined their request, he did try to inspire them, explaining that the most important part of writing is to put a piece of yourself into your words.
“You want a few lines only, but write a heartbeat in every one of them,” wrote Longfellow. “Try, and someone among you will succeed.”
The letters will be placed on display in the WSHS media center, along with photos of the school house and senior class in 1880.
