Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Longfellow's Quote

I know we all enjoy Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poems. One of my favorites is "The Children's Hour."

Longfellow was a successful poet as we well know and today I'd like to look at one of his quotes. It goes as follows,

"What would we see in the secret history of our enemies if we were able?" Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s quote answers the question. “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.”

If one were to see the secret history of their enemies they would indeed see sorrow and suffering. A whole lot of it. 

Yes, even in our enemies, our worst enemies, we would see in them suffering and sorrow. No matter how mean or evil they are, it will be the same nevertheless. Every man has to suffer, whether he likes it or not. He can accept these crosses or the contrary, but the suffering will be the same. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow also had to suffer, though he was not an enemy by any means. Although he was a successful poet and writer he still had heavy crosses to bear like the rest of us. His wife, Mary, died when they were traveling abroad, and, as you can imagine, this caused much grief and pain.

He married again in a later year to a girl named Fanny. Later she would die tragically. It was these crosses and more that Longfellow had to bear and it wasn’t easy. 

If indeed we could see the secret history of our enemies maybe we would think differently of them and have pity on them. 

One has to experience crosses in life, maybe not so hard of ones and hard ones. Longfellow’s quote is true. One would see a great deal of suffering and sorrow in the secret history of our enemies.

And it is not a question of, will a man have to bear hardships in his life, but rather it is a matter of how he will endure them.