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STORIES OF
shield with a rising sun and the motto in heraldic Latin, "Excelsior." His imagination was at once fired with the picture of the youth climbing up the Alps, and bearing in his hand the magic banner " with the strange device" of Upward Hope. This the poet decided upon as the symbol of youth ever anxious to press forward to attain higher and nobler things, and though he succeed not in this world, he is rewarded for the attempt in the next.
The Latin title was the subject of criticism both before and after publication, many thinking that it should be Excelsius, or Ad Excelsiore. Longfellow explained that he took the word from " Scopus meus excelsior est," " my goal is higher."
Unfortunately when the poem appeared it was execrably illustrated and brought down much ridicule upon the poet and set the parodists to work For it is easier to parody an allegory with some folk than to understand it. One of the most successful musical settings of "Excelsior" was by Stephen Glover (1812-1870).
The following letters fully explain Long-fellow's own meaning in regard to the poem. The first was written long ago to the Hon. C. K Tuckerman, the second is dated 1874.
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