HENRY WADSWORTH LONG FELLOW(1807-

INTRODUCTION

Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, to Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah
Wadsworth Longfellow, in Portland, Maine, at that time, a district of Massachusetts.
He was the second of eight children.
His insistent moral tone, sentimentality and serene idealism made him an extremely
popular author at home and abroad in the 19th century, being so considered as the
most widely known and best-loved American poet of his time.
He was a traveler, a linguist, and a romantic who identified with the great traditions of
European literature and thought. At the same time, he was rooted in American life and
history, which charged his imagination.
Poems such as "Paul Revere's Ride", "Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie" and "A Psalm of
Life" became mainstays (support, pillar) of American national culture, remembered by
generations of readers.
Longfellow lived in the "age of Romanticism", a time when American literature began
to separate from England and establish its own voice and identity. Some of American
best-known writers were active during Longfellow's time, including Herman Melville,
Willian Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne
(who was Longfellow's classmate in Bowdoin College), James Russell Lowell, Henry
David Thoreau, Walt Whitman.
Longfellow's celebrity in his own time, however, was considered the cause of a
changing in literary tastes and of reactions against the genteel tradition of authorship
he represented.
Longfellow became a national literary figure by the 1850's, and a world-famous
personality by the time of his death in 1882. He is the only American writer honored in
the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey (his bust was installed there in a ceremony in
1884).
Longfellow's achievement in fictional and nonfictional prose, in a striking variety of
poetic forms and modes, and his work in translating many European languages
resulted in a remarkably productive and influential literary career which were achieved
despite pressures of college teaching and repeated personal tragedies.

Longfellow made pioneering contributions to American literary life by exemplifying the

possibility of a successful authorial career, by linking American poetry to European
traditions beyond England, and by developing a surprisingly wide readership for
romantic poetry. His work could be considered as a kind of lens that explained and
interpreted the Old World to the New One.

LIFE

When he was five years old, his parents sent him to the Portland Academy, a private
institution where his older brother, Stephen was also enrolled. As was the custom for
the time, the two brothers focused most of their studies on languages and literature.
At 13, Longfellow published his first poem in the Portland Gazette, but he simply
signed it Henry. The poem, "The Battle of Lovell's Pond", was the heroic tale of a battle
between colonists and Indians; it was published in Gazette first page. No praise came
from this poem and no one in the family, except his sister Anne, realized that that was
their Henry who wrote the poem. Later in the evening of the publishing, while at a
friend's house, Henry overheard the father say to another friend how terrible the
poem was. The young boy was devastated but this incident did not stop his literary
aspirations.
After finishing his studies, he was offered a professorship at the Bowdoin College in
modern European Languages. To prepare himself, he travelled and studied abroad. His
trip began in 1826 and lasted three years, period spent acquiring or mastering seven
languages and getting in touch with some prominent European authors. When back,
Longfellow began teaching French, Spanish and Italian till 1934 when he accepted the
Smith Professorship of Modern Languages at Harvard College.
To improve his skills before taking on the new position at Harvard, he and his wife
Mary Potter of Portland, who he married in 1834, went to another trip to Europe. This
trip was a crucial turning point in his life and carrier. His young wife died of a
complicated miscarriage and after sending her body back for burial, he continued his
journey, hoping to dispel his cares and anguish. Solace did eventually come, but with it
a new form of anguish. During a meeting in the Swiss Alps he was brought together
with the wealthy Appleton family of Boston, and he then fell in love with their
daughter Fanny Appleton, who was the great love of his live, but she did not return
that love for seven years.
Back to Cambridge in 1836 he took his teaching post and that is considered as the true
beginning of Longfellow's creative live. There he remained a rather romantic figure in
Cambridge, with his flowing hair and his yellow gloves and flowered waistcoats. He
worked, however, with great determination and industry, publishing "Hyperion", a
prose romance that foreshadowed his love for Frances Appleton, and "Voices of the
Night", his first book of poems. He journeyed again to Europe, and he wrote "The
Spanish student", and took his stand with the abolitionists.
His early fame and persistent wooing finally led Fanny to relent and they were married
in 1843. Craigie House, the Cambridge residence was a wedding gift from Fanny's

father. Henry and Fanny had six children. The Longfellow raised their children at
Craigie House and formed the warm family circle that, through its reflection in many
poems, became a kind of symbol for domestic love, for the innocence of childhood,
and for the pleasure of material comfort.
It was at Craigie House, too, that Longfellow's famous circle of friend and
acquaintances came together. They were writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Nathaniel Hawthorne (who was his classmate at Bowdoin College), Oliver Holmes,
Charles Sumner, Charles Eliot Norton, James Russell Lowell, etc.
Some of those visitors of Craigie House were known as the Fireside Poets, also called
Schoolroom or Household Poets, precisely they were Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier,
Holmes and Lowell. They formed the first group of popular American Poets whose
fame rivaled that of British poets on both sides of Atlantic. Their poetry was pleasantly
conventional and could be easily memorized offering a source for family
entertainment at the fireside. Typically, the subject matter of their writing derived
from legends, contemporary politics and domestic life.
The last stage of Longfellow's career began in 1861 with the tragic death of his wife
Fanny, who set fire to her own clothes while melting wax. In the futile efforts to put
the fire out, Longfellow burned his hands and face. So, he started to use a long beard
to cover the scars.
After Fanny's death, Longfellow dedicated great part of his creative energy to translate
Dante's Divine Comedy. (There is also a novel by Matthew Pearl "The Dante Club" that
alludes to that group of people gathering together when Longfellow was translating Dante's
work). Though the continued to write fine verses, what were to be Longfellow's most famous
works were done. Honors of every king were bestowed on him in Europe and America.

STYLE
Longfellow was probably one of the best loved American poets over the world. Many
of his lines are still familiar to Americans, such as rhymes from Mother Goose ( Mother
Goose is an iconic figure in literature, associated with both fairy tales and nursery rhymes) or the words
of nursery from songs learned in early childhood (slideshow - put here the examples of
Mother Goose and other nursery songs).

There Was a Little Girl

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We can point out at least two reasons for the popularity and significance of Longfellow's
poetry:
First, he had the gift of easy rhyme. He wrote poetry as a bird sings, with natural grace and
melody.
Second, Longfellow wrote on obvious themes which appeal to all kinds of people. His poems
are easily understood and they sing their way into the consciousness of those who read them.
Above all, there is a joyousness in them, a spirit of optimism and faith in the goodness of live
which evokes immediate response in the emotions of his readers.
Longfellow's and his group's, The Fireside Poets, poetry are very popular among 19th century
Americans because they preferred conventional forms over experimentation. They also paid
great attention to rhyme and strict metrical cadences, which made their work popular for
memorization and recitation in classrooms and homes. Also, another interesting characteristic
noted among their poems is the length.
At the beginning of the 19th century, American was a stumbling baby concerning the matter of
culture of its own. Literature, Art and Music came mainly from Europe, specially from England.
At that time, nothing was considered worthy of attention unless it came from Europe.
American Literature owe a great debt to Longfellow because he was among the first of
American writes to use native themes, worth to be read in America and in Europe. He wrote
about the American life, scenes and landscapes.
Longfellow eternalized in his poetry many native themes, such as The American Indians, the
American Tradition and landscape.

WORKS
Among his works, some are here point out as examples of his style.

1)First published poem, "The Battle of Lovell's Pond" appears in the "Portland Gazette", which
was the heroic tale of a battle between colonists and Indians.

The Battle of Lovell's Pond

Mr. Longfellow's first verses, so far as known, printed in the Portland Gazette,
November 17, 1820.
Portland Gazette 1820

The Battle of Lovell's Pond

Cold, cold is the north wind and rude is the blast

That sweeps like a hurricane loudly and fast,
As it moans through the tall waving pines lone and drear,
Sighs a requiem sad o'er the warrior's bier.
The war-whoop is still, and the savage's yell
Has sunk into silence along the wild dell;
The din of the battle, the tumult, is o'er,
And the war-clarion's voice is now heard no more.
The warriors that fought for their country, and bled,
Have sunk to their rest; the damp earth is their bed;
No stone tells the place where their ashes repose,
Nor points out the spot from the graves of their foes.
They died in their glory, surrounded by fame,
And Victory's loud trump their death did proclaim;
They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast,
And their names are engraven on honor's bright crest.

2 ) Hyperion, an autobiographical novel (featuring a delicately indirect account of Longfellow's

love for and rejection by Fanny Appleton), appeared in 1839).

Hyperion follow a young American protagonist named Paul Flemming as he travels through
Germany. The character's wandering is partially inspired by the death of a friend. The author
had also recently lost someone close to him, his first wife Mary Storer Potter. We could also
considered that Hyperion was inspired in part by Longfellow's trips to Europe as well as his
then unsuccessful courtship of Frances Appleton, because in the novel, Flemming falls in love
with an Englishwoman, Mary Ashburton, who refects him.

3) The poetry collections Voices in the Night (1839) and Ballads and Poems (1841) were
received enthusiastically by an international audience and he also took his place with the
abolitionists, publishing Poems on Slavery (1842)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow THE SLAVE'S DREAM

Beside the ungathered rice he lay,
His sickle in his hand;
His breast was bare, his matted hair
Was buried in the sand.
Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep,
He saw his Native Land.

Wide through the landscape of his dreams

The lordly Niger flowed;
Beneath the palm-trees on the plain
Once more a king he strode;
And heard the tinkling caravans
Descend the mountain-road.
He saw once more his dark-eyed queen
Among her children stand;
They clasped his neck, they kissed his cheeks,
They held him by the hand!-A tear burst from the sleeper's lids
And fell into the sand.
And then at furious speed he rode
Along the Niger's bank;
His bridle-reins were golden chains,
And, with a martial clank,
At each leap he could feel his scabbard of steel

4) Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847)

Smiting his stallion's flank.

Before him, like a blood-red flag,
The bright flamingoes flew;
From morn till night he followed their flight,
O'er plains where the tamarind grew,
Till he saw the roofs of Caffre huts,
And the ocean rose to view.
At night he heard the lion roar,
And the hyena scream,
And the river-horse, as he crushed the reeds
Beside some hidden stream;
And it passed, like a glorious roll of drums,
Through the triumph of his dream.
The forests, with their myriad tongues,
Shouted of liberty;
And the Blast of the Desert cried aloud,
With a voice so wild and free,
That he started in his sleep and smiled
At their tempestuous glee.
He did not feel the driver's whip,
Nor the burning heat of day;
For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep,
And his lifeless body lay
A worn-out fetter, that the soul
Had broken and thrown away

Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie is a poem published in 1847 by the American poet Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for
her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Great Upheaval (great disturbance and
violence). The work was written in dactylic hexameter reminiscent of Greek and Latin classics,
though Longfellow was criticized for the meter. Longfellow got the idea for the poem from his
friend Nathaniel Hawthorne and published Evangeline in 1847. It has remained one of his most
popular and enduring works.
On April 5, 1840, Longfellow invited a few friends to dine at his rented rooms in Cambridge
House. Nathaniel Hawthorne brought the Reverend Horace Conolly with him. At dinner,
Conolly related a tale he had heard from a French-Canadian woman about an Acadian couple
separated on their wedding day by the British expulsion of the French-speaking inhabitants of
Nova Scotia. The bride-to-be wandered for years, trying to find her fianc. Conolly had hoped
Hawthorne would take the story and turn it into a novel, but he was not interested.
Longfellow, however, was intrigued, and reportedly called the story "the best illustration of
faithfulness and the constancy of woman that I have ever heard of or read". He asked for
Hawthorne's blessing to turn it into a poem.
The narrative poem echoed such epics as Homer's Odyssey. In the original story Evangeline
had wandered about New England in search of her bridegroom, but Longfellow extended her
journey through Louisiana and the western wilderness. Evangeline finally found Gabriel dying
in Philadelphia. Evangeline was considered as Longfellow's first epic poem, and was published
in 1847 and became a huge success. It elevated Longfellow to be the most famous writer in
America and has had a lasting cultural impact, especially in Nova Scotia and Louisiana.
The poem went through six printings in the first six months after being published, and within
ten years had been translated into a dozen languages. The poem has been made into two
films, one in 1922 and the second, staring popular silent film actress Dolores Del Rio, in 1929.
Generations of American children read, memorized and recited the poem as part of their
schooling. Schools, churches, inns, and many other businesses and social groups were named
for the poem's heroine.

Description

Henry Longfellow sent this engraving of Evangeline by James Faed to his sister, Anne
Longfellow Pierce, in 1855. It was one of two prints of Longfellow's tragic heroine to
decorate the parlor of the Portland house. The original oil painting was done by Thomas
Faed and this engraving done by his brother, James Faed. The printing at the bottom
reads, "Evangeline. "Sat by some nameless grave and thought that perhaps in its bosom/
He was already at rest, and she longed to slumber beside him." Dedicated by permission
to Professor Longfellow."

Other Information

Title: Engraving of Evangeline, by James Faed, ca. 1854

Creator: James Faed

Creation Date: circa 1854

5) The Song of Hiawatha (1855),

Longfellow began to feel that his work as a teacher was a hindrance to his own writing. In
1854, he resigned from Harvard and began to write "The Song of Hiwatha".
As a background for the poem, Longfellow consulted Henry Schoolcraft's books on the Indian
tribes of North America and perpetuated an error of Schoolcraft's that placed Hiawatha among
the forest tribes of the northern Midwest. The historical ?Hiawatha (c.1450) lived well to the
east.
As soon as the poem was published its popularity was assured and caused great excitement.
For the first time in American literature, Indian themes gained recognition as sources of
imagination, power and originality. However, it also was severely criticized as a plagiary of the
Finnish epic poem "Kalevala".
The Song of Hiawatha adapted its meter from the Finnish national epic Kalevala and told a
story of an Indian chief, an Ojibwa Indian, who is raised by Nokomins, his grandmother, "the
daughter of the moon". Upon reaching manhood, Hiawatha wants to avenge the wrong done
by his father, the West Wind, to his mother, Wenonah. Father and son eventually reconcile,
and Hiawatha becomes the leader of his people. He married Minnehaha, and an era of peace
and prosperity ensues under his reign. But hard times come to his tribe, disease and famine
afflicted his people. Minnehaha died, Hiawatha took his leave to go to the Isles of the Blessed,
and advised his people to accept the white man and to pay attention to those who would
come with a new religion. The end of "Hiawatha" evoked the end of "Kalevala", on which the
central character, the old and wise, representing the paganism, made way for a new kind of
religion.
6)The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858)
The gracious tale of John Alden and Priscilla came next to the poet's mind, and "The Courtship
of Miles Standish" was published in 1858. It is a work which reflects the ease with which
Longfellow wrote and the pleasure and enjoyment he derived from his skill. Twenty-five
thousand copies were sold during the first week of its publication, and 10.000 were ordered in
London on the first day of its publication.
7) The poem of "Paul Revere's Ride"(1860) "Paul Revere's Ride" is one of Longfellow's best known and most widely read poems. It was
first published on the eve of the American Civil War and later as the opening tale of the 22
linked narratives that comprise Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn"(1863). The poem
rescued a minor figure of the Revolutionary War from obscurity and made him into a national
hero.
The basic premise of Longfellow's poem was historically accurate, but Paul Revere's role was
exaggerated. Longfellow's intention was not to write a history.

The opening lines of "Paul Revere's Ride" are still famous that even people who have not read
the entire poem often know them by heart.
The poem's begins by saying "listen, my children, and you shall hear." By invoking children in
the opening line of his patriotic poem, Longfellow implicitly defines his narrative as a story the
older generation considers important enough to pass down to posterity. The entire poem
should not be considered as a merely interesting story but a legacy - one of the traditional
tales that defines both the audience and the speaker's identity, especially at a crucial time
when the Independence War receded from living memories and the disastrous Civil War
inexorably approached.

Paul Revere's Ride

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen my children and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march

By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,-One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."
Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,

Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,-By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,-A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.
A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,

And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark

Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.
It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,--How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
>From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere;

And so through the night went his cry of alarm

To every Middlesex village and farm,--A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

CRITICISM
Longfellow did as much as any author or politician of his time to shape the way
nineteenth-century American saw themselves, their nation, and their past. Longfellow
created the national myths for which his new and still unstoried country hungered. His
poems gave his contemporaries the words, images, myths and heroes by which they
explained America to one another and themselves.
Nineteenth century readers greatly esteemed Longfellow's form, which combines the
narrative pleasures of fiction with the verbal music of verse. Clever marketing, often
initiated by the poet himself, expanded the audience for his romantic works until he
had become one of the best selling and most widely read author in the world.
In some of his works, such as in "Outre Mer", Longfellow filters his experience through
other writers, in this particular case "inspired" in Washington Irving's travel and Lord
Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage". Also, in "The Song of Hiawatha" he also inspired
himself in the Finnish epic poem "Kalevala".
Edgar Allan Poe later accused Longfellow of plagiarizing, but it is clear that Longfellow's
use of literary models came from a deep sense of his participation in a universal
fellowship of art: to borrow and imitate was to enrich and amplify his own vision.
Poe's biographers used to call his critics about Longfellow's works as "The Longfellow
War". Poe's assessment was that Longfellow was a "determined imitator and a
dextrous adapter of the ideas of other people.
Other critics such as Margaret Fuller judged Longfellow as an "artificial and imitative"
poet and Walt Whitman also considered Longfellow an imitator of European forms but
praised Longfellow's ability to reach a popular audience as the "expressor of common
themes - of the little songs of the masses".
But the term "plagiarism" didn't mean what it does today. In fact, it was the opposite
of "originality", it's not a word-for-word theft, but a theft of poetic ideas.
It's was not a matter of stealing ideas, but it's quite true that Longfellow lifted ideas
from other poems. He was incredibly well-read and often paid homage to his
influences. He did not significantly experiment with poetic structure or invent anything
new. Instead, he went back to classic poem - especially European poems - and copied
their meter. We should remember that that was a time where Americans were really
trying to define and create an American literature. But instead of trying to be distinctly
American, to be "free" from the muses of Europe" as said by Emerson, Longfellow
said he was trying to be universal.
Modern critics have generally downgraded narrative poetry in favor of lyric verse.
Longfellow's reputation has been especially hard hit by the change in critical

consensus. The special qualities of his poem seem antithetical to the lyric traditions of
modern poetry, which prize verbal compression, intellectual complexity, elliptical style,
and self-referential movement. Longfellow's greatest gifts were best suited to more
public poetry - forceful clarity, evocative simplicity, emotional directness and a genius
for memorable, indeed unforgettable, phasing.
To some contemporary critics Longfellow hovers perpetually in the twilight, because it
is impossible to forget his work and impossible to re-canonize him. Although his public
never disappeared, its reception changed from head-of-the-cannon to lapsed canon.
These contemporary critics, such as professor Joe Lockard, from Arizona State
University, this situation represents the cumulative effect of critical ideologies that
look towards the American nineteenth century with modernist and post modern
preoccupations, or that selected figures of interest for what they potentially contribute
to contemporary discussion of race, gender and sexuality.

"Nationality is a good thing to a certain extent but universality is better. All that is best in the
great poets of all countries is not what is national in them, but what is universal."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from his novel Kavanagh (1849)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Biographical Timeline with Selected Publication Dates

February 27, 1807 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born

1813 - Begins attending Portland Academy
1820 First published poem, "The Battle of Lovell's Pond," appears in the "Portland
Gazette"
1821 Enrolled at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME. Stays in Portland for first year of
studies (Hawthorne's classmate)
1825 Graduates from Bowdoin College
1826 - 1829 Travels/Studies in Europe
1829 - 1835 Teaches at Bowdoin College
1831 Marries Mary Potter
1835 Outre-Mer published. Longfellow returns to Europe with Mary and two of her
friends. Mary dies in Rotterdam.
1836 Meets Frances (Fanny) Appleton. Returns to US from second tour of Europe,
moves to Cambridge, MA to begin professorship at Harvard
1839 Voices of the Night and Hyperion published
1843 Marries Fanny
1844 - 1855 Henry and Fanny have six children: Charles, Ernest, Frances (died at age 16
months), Alice, Edith, and Anne
1847 Publishes Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie
1854 Retires from teaching
1855 Publishes The Song of Hiawatha
1861 Fanny dies
1863 Publishes Tales of a Wayside Inn
1867 Publishes a translation of Dante's Divine Comedy
1868 Received by Queen Victoria
1882 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow dies

The Poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Historical Context
The Life and Times of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1800s
Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth of the U.S. Navy dies a hero at the Battle of Tripoli in
1804.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is born on February 27, 1807, and is named in honor of
his mothers late war-hero brother.
The U.S. Embargo Act of 1807 prohibits trade with European nations in protest of
violated U.S. neutrality rights in the Napoleonic Wars.
1810s
The War of 1812 pits the United States against Britain.
Jane Austens novel Pride and Prejudice published, 1813.
Francis Scott Key writes The Star-Spangled Banner, 1814.
Napoleon defeated at Waterloo by united European forces, ending French control of the
continent, 1815.
1820s
Longfellow enrolls at Bowdoin College, 1821, and graduates in 1825.
Longfellow travels across Europe to prepare for his job as Professor of Modern
Languages, 1826-29.
An American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster published, the first
expressly American dictionary, 1828.
1830s
Longfellow anonymously publishes Outre-Mer, a collection of travel writing. While in
Holland, his wife, Mary, dies, 1835.
More than 14,000 Cherokee are forced to give up their land and move to what is now
the state of Oklahoma, walking the Trail of Tears, 1838-39.
1840s
Longfellow meets Charles Dickens, who helps inspire Poems on Slavery, 1842.
Longfellow marries Fanny Appleton, and her father buys them Craigie House, 1843.
The Mexican War between the U.S. and Mexico results in the southern expansion of
Texas and the ceding of the California and New Mexico territories to the U.S.,1846-48.
1850s
Charles Sumner, U.S. senator and lifelong friend of Longfellow, is physically attacked
on the Senate floor after an anti-slavery speech, 1856.

Longfellows The Courtship of Miles Standish and Other Poems sells 25,000 copies in
the first two months and 10,000 copies in London on its first publication day, 1858.
1860s
Abraham Lincoln becomes U.S. president; the Civil War begins when Confederate
forces attack Fort Sumter, 1861.
The Civil War ends with the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at
Appomattox Court House in Virginia; Lincoln assassinated, 1865.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed, abolishing slavery in the
U.S., 1865.
1870s
Longfellow meets President Ulysses S. Grant, 1871.
In 1874, Longfellow begins work on the anthology Poems of Places, which will be
published in 31 volumes by 1879.
Thomas Edison patents the incandescent light bulb, 1879.
Longfellows first grandchild is born, 1879.
1880s
Longfellow dies at age 75 on March 24, 1882.
Longfellow becomes the first American poet memorialized at Westminster Abbeys in
Poets Corner, 1884.

Bibliography

http://www.hwlongfellow.org/
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=81397
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/henry-wadsworth-longfellow/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow#Style
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5654

http://www.online-literature.com/henry_longfellow/
http://www.nps.gov/long/historyculture/henry-wadsworthlongfellow.htm
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/long.htm
http://www.danagioia.net/essays/elongfellow.htm
http://bad.eserver.org/reviews/2005/calhoun.html

There Was a Little Girl

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There Was a Little Girl

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Version 1
There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good,
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad, she was horrid!
Source: The Real Mother Goose (1916)

Version 2
There was a little girl, and she had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
When she was good, she was very, very good,
But when she was bad, she was horrid.
One day she went upstairs, while her parents, unawares,
In the kitchen down below were occupied with meals;
And she stood upon her head, on her little truckle bed,
And she then began hurraying with her heels.
Her mother heard the noise, and thought it was the boys
A-playing at a combat in the attic;
But when she climbed the stair,
And saw Jemima there,
She took and she did whip her most emphatic.
Source: Magic Mother Goose Melodies (1879)

Version 3
There was a little girl,
And she had a little curl,
That hung in the middle of her forehead,

When she was good,

She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
Source: Roosevelt, The Home Life of Henry W. Longfellow (1882)

Historical Background
The authorship of There was a Little Girl is still in question. The most attributed
author is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the famous American educator and poet. It is
said that the rhyme is about his daughter, Edith. However, the theory is debated, mainly
because the word usage in the rhyme is inconsistent with Longfellows writing style.

The Fireside Poets (also known as the Schoolroom or Household Poets)[1] were a
group of 19th-century American poets from New England.

The group is typically thought to comprise Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William

Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Sr.,[2] who were the first American poets whose popularity rivaled that of
British poets, both at home and abroad, nearly surpassing that of Alfred Lord Tennyson.
The name "Fireside Poets" is derived from that popularity: The Fireside Poets' general
adherence to poetic conventionstandard forms, regular meter, and rhymed stanzas
made their body of work particularly suitable for memorization and recitation in school
and also at home, where it was a source of entertainment for families gathered around
the fire. The poets' primary subjects were the domestic life, mythology, and politics of
America, in which several of the poets were directly involved. The Fireside Poets did
not write for the sake of other poets; they wrote for the common people. They meant to
have their stories told for families.
Most of the Fireside Poets lived long lives. A culminating event was the 70th birthday
party of Whittier in 1877. Organized by publisher Henry Oscar Houghton, then editor of
the Atlantic Monthly, the event meant to serve as a symbol for the magazine's
association with the poets, most of whom were present for the celebration.[3] Lowell had
recently moved to Spain.[4] Mark Twain gave a now infamous after-dinner speech in
which he satirized the poets as uncouth drunkards.[5]
Longfellow, Lowell, and Holmes are featured in the bestselling novel The Dante Club
by Matthew Pearl, published 2003.

[edit] Gallery

Bryant

Holmes

Longfellow Lowell

Whittier

Also called Schoolroom or Household Poets, the Fireside Poets (Bryant, Longfellow,
Whittier, Holmes, Lowell) were the first group of popular American poets whose fame
rivaled that of British poets on both sides of the Atlantic. Their poetry was pleasantly
conventional, could be easily memorized and offered a source for family entertainment.
Typically, the subject matter of their writing derived from legends, contemporary
politics and domestic life.