<hi rend="bold" TEIform="hi">Letter from Henry W. Longfellow to James J. Pettigrew, March 27, 1847:</hi> Electronic Edition. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882 Erika Lindemann Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the electronic publication of this title. Text transcribed by Erika Lindemann Images scanned by Mara E. Dabrishus Text encoded by Amanda Page First Edition, 2005 ca. 11K The University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina 2005

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 <hi rend="italics" TEIform="hi">True and Candid Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students in North Carolina</hi> written by Lindemann, Erika Pettigrew Family Papers (#592), Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Letter from Henry W. Longfellow to James J. Pettigrew, March 27, 1847 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth 4 pages, 5 page images 1847 Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Call number 592 (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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 Library of Congress Subject Headings Erika's vocab English Education/UNC Curriculum Reading and Writing/Composition Writings by Non-Students 2005-06-01, Amanda Page finished TEI/XML encoding Document Summary

Longfellow declines Pettigrew's request to write a poem for commencement, claiming that a student can do it better because he knows the graduates personally.

 Letter from Henry W. Longfellow to James J. Pettigrew, March 27, 18471 Cambridge March 27 1847 Dear Sir,

Accept my best thanks for the kindness both expressed and implied in your note of the 21st. It would give me much pleasure to attend your Commencement and to furnish the poem you suggest; but I fear that both will be impossible. Such a poem, to be good, must be written from the heart and not from the imagination, and consequently must be written by some one personally acquainted with the class. One of yourselves, therefore, would do it much better than I should; for he could fill his poem with little personal allusions, which would make it effective and beautiful; whereas the stranger could speak only in general terms, and his song would suit all similar occasions quite as well as that for which it was ostensibly written

On this account I feel constrained, though reluctantly, to decline your request; while at the same time I thank you for the consideration and regard which have prompted it.

Very truly yours Henry W Longfellow

1. Pettigrew Family Papers, SHC. Longfellow's letter was mailed in an envelope addressed to "Mr J. J. Pettigrew/ University of North/Carolina./ Chapel Hill." The following endorsement appears in a second hand to the left of the address, written along the left edge: "From H. W. Longfellow./Dated. 27th March 1847,/Declining to write a poem." The envelope bears a postmark in red ink that is too faint to read. The letter has previously been published in Longfellow 3:133-34. Why Pettigrew wrote to Longfellow is unclear. The 1847 Commencement was notable because President James Knox Polk attended. Pettigrew, the class valedictorian, may have written to Longfellow on behalf of the graduating seniors as part of a plan for the elaborate ceremonies in anticipation of the President's visit. Though Gov. Swain did not extend his invitation to President Polk until April 24, 1847 (Swain Papers, SHC), North Carolina Gov. William A. Graham wrote a long letter to Swain on March 27, 1847, detailing plans for the President's reception. Thus, planning for the visit, including perhaps Pettigrew's invitation to Longfellow, may have been in progress a month before the President agreed to attend.