Daybreak" by H. W.

Longfellow
A Short Discussion
The Author:
H. W. Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was one of the great American poets of the
19thcentury. He was born at Portland, a seaport town in Maine, U.S.A. on 27 February,
1807. His father Stephen Longfellow was a lawyer and was originally from Yorkshire,
England. H. W. Longfellow was the second one of eight children of his parents. He was
friendly, sensitive and meritorious from his childhood. He had his early education at
Portland Academy. Then he was admitted in Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine in
1822. At Bowdoin, he met Nathaniel Hawthorne who became his lifelong friend. After
graduating from there in 1825, he made a long European tour.
He returned home in 1830 and became the first Professor of Modern Languages at
Bowdoin College. In 1831, he married Mary Storer Potter, an intelligent and beautiful
girl of Portland. But his 22 year old wife died during their trip in Rotterdam after
suffering a miscarriage in 1835. When he returned to the United States in 1836, he
became the Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard University. Then he settled in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he lived for the rest of his life although he liked to
spend summers at his home Nahant.
After seven years of courtship he married Miss Frances Fanny Appleton, the daughter of
a wealthy Boston industrialist, Nathal Appleton in 1843, eight years after the death of his
first wife. He resigned his professorship in 1854 to devote all his time to poetry. He was
also a devoted husband. But his marriage ended in sadness. After eighteen years of happy
married life, Fanny was accidentally burnt to death in 1861. Longfellow was devastated
by her death and never fully recovered. He died on 24 March in 1882, after suffering
from peritonitis for five years. He was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
He became one of the most popular poets of his day in America and England. He began
to write and publish poetry at the age of thirteen. His first notable publication Voices of
Night (1839) was a collection of poems including The Psalm of Life, The Beleaguered
City and The Midnight Mass of the Dying Year. His other major collection of poems are
Evangeline (1847),The Golden Legend (1851), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), The
Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863), Birds of Passage, etc.
His poetry is based on common and easily understood themes with simple, clean and
lucid language.
The Source:
The poem Daybreak is taken from Birds of Passage, a collection of his poems.
The Substance:
At daybreak a wind rises from the sea. It receives the message of the morning and starts
to blow. It takes up a duty to spread the news. The heavy mists obstruct the wind. But the
wind is determined to blow. It is in haste and wants to make all awake. So it requests the
mists not to obstruct it. It first sees the ships anchored. But they should be set free from

their anchors as the sun rises and darkness is over. The wind reminds the mariners to
undertake a new journey. It blows over the distant lands and calls all to arise and awake.
It calls the forest to unfold its leaves, twigs and branches fully and freely. It tells the
wood birds to get up and start singing. Their song will announce the beginning of the day.
It prompts the domestic cocks to herald the day.
The light of the sun is the source of life to the plants of the fields. They are looked after
and nourished by it. They should be grateful to the sun. So the wind tells them to bow
down their heads and express their gratitude. The wind passes through the church tower
and results the bell to ring in the pleasant hour. Finally, the wind arrives at the graveyard
of the church. It sighs sadly for the dead and softly tells them to sleep on because it is not
yet the Judgement Day.
The Features:
Daybreak is a fine lyrical poem. An urge for work is the central theme of the poem. It is
written in nine lovely couplets. Keeping in mind the flow of the wind, the poet applies a
breezy style to the poem. It seems that we move on with the wind from one place to
another. The poet personifies the wind actually placing his own words into its lips. He
successfully catches the mood and atmosphere of the earth at daybreak. Overall, the
poem is really enjoyable.