 Amidst this, he fell into "periods of neurotic depression with moments of panic" and took a six-month leave of absence from Harvard to attend a health spa in the former Marienberg Benedictine Convent at Boppard in Germany.After returning, he published the play "The Spanish Student" in 1842, reflecting his memories from his time in Spain in the 1820s.The small collection "Poems on Slavery" was published in 1842 as Longfellow's first public support of abolitionism.