Prince Henry by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Prince Henry is the main character in The Golden Legend, which is the central part of Longfellow's verse trilogy Christus: A Mystery. He draws inspiration from a medieval German nobleman featured in Hartmann von Aue's 13th-century poem Der arme Heinrich. This monologue marks his first speech in the drama, where we find him at his lowest, unable to sleep and yearning for death.

The stage direction that has Lucifer enter just after Henry expresses his desire for 'endless sleep' is intentional. A man who no longer fears death and instead embraces it has given up one of his key protections against temptation. Lucifer appears disguised as a wandering physician — a figure promising a remedy — precisely when Henry is at his most vulnerable.

He suggests that memory can piece together the details of the past — the season, the place, the faces — but it can't recreate the emotions you experienced at that time. You've changed. Your soul is tuned differently now, so even if you hit the same notes, the music sounds off. This is one of the clearest depictions of nostalgia's frustration found in Longfellow's work.

An Aeolian harp is a genuine instrument — a box with strings stretched across it that creates music when wind flows over them. No one plays it; the wind takes over. Romantic poets cherished it as a symbol of the passive, sensitive soul. In this context, it indicates that Henry lacks control over his own emotions: memories sweep through him like wind through the strings, generating music he didn't select and can't halt.

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides are nymphs who take care of a garden filled with golden apple trees located at the far western edge of the world — one of Hercules' twelve labors involved stealing apples from there. This garden became synonymous with paradise, always just out of reach. Longfellow evokes this garden to infuse the memory-breeze with a sense of something fantastically beautiful yet forever unattainable.

The poem doesn't quite make a direct death wish, but it definitely comes close. Henry suggests that the idea of never-ending rest feels sweeter than the idea of an unending life. He isn't plotting anything — he's voicing a profound fatigue with being conscious. Within the larger narrative, this spiritual emptiness is depicted as a kind of soul sickness, mirroring the physical leprosy he endures.

Longfellow employs rhyming couplets (AABB) throughout the poem, creating a steady, almost lullaby-like rhythm that suits a man who longs for sleep. This consistency introduces a touch of irony: while the structure is both controlled and musical, the speaker articulates a struggle with losing grip on his own mind.

The recurring themes of the distance between memory and lived experience, the heaviness of loss, and the desire for peace are present in poems like Mezzo Cammin and The Cross of Snow. Longfellow experienced the death of his first wife in 1835 and lost his second wife in a fire in 1861. Grief over such profound loss is a prominent aspect of his work.