Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

He is known now as the foremost of the Fireside Poets, a group that includes J.R. Lowell, O.W. Holmes and J.G. Whittier. As the term suggests, the Fireside Poets wrote for a family audience, usually on subjects of general appeal: nature, home and family, religious and moral lessons, and patriotism.

Longfellow was born the son of a lawyer in Portland, Maine, and was educated at nearby Bowdoin College where Nathaniel Hawthorne was his classmate. At first he tried to combine his writing with another profession. He considered the ministry and the law, but finally, accepted the opportunity to become Bowdoin’s first professor of modern languages (he was 19 years old then). In preparation for his duties, he lived and travelled for several years in Europe, studying languages and absorbing impressions of the Old World. Thereafter, first at Bowdoin and then at Harvard, he combined teaching of languages with his career as a poet. In 1854, after 18 years at Harvard, he resigned his professorship to devote himself for the rest of his life to his poems.

His family life was not happy. His first wife died of a miscarriage in 1835. His poem “Footsteps of Angels” contains a reference to her; her name was Mary Storer Potter. In 1843 Longfellow married Mrs. Fanny Appleton (Mary Ashburton of “Hyperion”). In 1861 Mrs. Longfellow was burned to death (her clothing taking fire from a wax taper with which she was sealing a letter). After her tragic death two sons and three daughters took care of him.

Literary Career

When Henry was ten, he wrote his first poem. While he was in college,

he contributed poems to the “US Literary Gazette”. From 1830 to 1840

Longfellow contributed essays to the “North American Review”.

His major works:

1839 – “Hyperion” (his only novel), “Voices of the Night”

1841 – “Ballads and other Poems”

1842 – “Poems on Slavery” (his masterpiece)

1847 – “Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie”

1855 – “The Song of Hiawatha”

1865-1867 – Dante’s “Divine Comedy” translation

In addition to his original writings, Longfellow edited several works:

1845 – “The Poets and Poetry of Europe”

1876-1879 – “Poems of Places” (31 volumes)

Henry Longfellow was to a great extent under the influence of abolitionism (he wanted the Negro people to be freed from slavery).

He knew 12 modern languages, as well as ancient Greek, Latin, Gothic, Hebrew, old French and old German. Besides, he gathered Indian folklore and gave lectures on it.

Longfellow died at the age of 75, when he was at the peak of his fame.

His 75^th birthday was observed in classrooms throughout the country.

Longfellow chose general subjects for his poetry. He believed his task was to create in memorable form, a common heritage for Americans. Through his poems, which were remarkably varied in form and meter, Longfellow shared with thousands of Americans the recreated past of “Paul Revere’s Ride”, the Plymouth Colony legend of the “Courtship of Miles Standish”, the Indian myths of “The Song of Hiawatha”, and a tragic episode of Canadian-American history in “Evangeline”.

LECTURE VII