Poet, born in Portland, Maine, USA. After graduation from Bowdoin College (1825), he studied languages in Europe (18269) and became professor and librarian at Bowdoin (182935). After further study in Europe, he was appointed Smith Professor of French and Spanish at Harvard (183654). A collection of poetry, Voices in the Night (1839), contained the poems A Psalm Life, Hymn to the Night, and The Light of the Stars, which soon became widely known. Ballads and Other Poems (1841), including such immensely popular works as The Village Blacksmith, The Wreck of the Hesperus, and Excelsior, and his longer narrative poems, Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), further served to make him the best-known American poet of the century. His Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863) opens with Paul Revere's Ride, which has ever since been a national favourite. The widespread knowledge of these works and their inclusion in school curricula throughout the country did much to establish the popular notion of poetry in the USA well into the 20th-c. For spiritual solace after the accidental death of his second wife (1861), he translated The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri (18657) and produced a series of six sonnets, Divina Commedia, which are among his finest poems. Although his work later came to be regarded as saccharine and didactic, there is no denying that he long played one of the traditional roles of a poet.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow|
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| Born: |
February 27, 1807 Portland, Maine, United States |
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| Died: |
March 24, 1882 |
| Occupation(s): | Poet |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet among whose works were Paul Revere's Ride, A Psalm of Life, The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline. Born in Maine, Longfellow lived for most of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a house once occupied during the American Revolution by General George Washington and his staff.
Early life and education
Longfellow was born in 1807 to Stephen and Zilpah (Wadsworth) Longfellow in Portland, Maine, and grew up in what is now known as the Wadsworth-Longfellow House.
Longfellow was enrolled in a "dame school" at the age of only three, and by age six, when he entered the Portland Academy, he was able to read and write quite well. At Bowdoin, he met Nathaniel
Hawthorne, who became his lifelong friend.
First European tour and professorship at Bowdoin
After graduating in 1825, he was offered a professorship at Bowdoin College with the condition that he first spend some time in Europe for further language study.
Second European tour and professorship at Harvard
In 1834, Longfellow was offered the Smith Professorship of French and Spanish at Harvard with the stipulation that he spend a year or so in Europe to perfect his German.
When he returned to the United States in 1836, Longfellow took up the professorship at Harvard University.
Marriage to Frances "Fanny" Appleton
Longfellow began courting Frances "Fanny" Appleton, the daughter of a wealthy Boston Industrialist, Nathan Appleton. That bridge was subsequently demolished and replaced in 1906 by a new bridge, which was eventually renamed as the Longfellow Bridge.
His love for Fanny is evident in the following lines from Longfellow's only love-poem, the sonnet "The Evening Star," which he wrote in October, 1845: "O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus!
Longfellow retired from Harvard in 1854, devoting himself entirely to writing.
The death of Frances
Longfellow was a devoted husband and father with a keen feeling for the pleasures of home.
On a hot July day, while sealing her daughter's curls in an envelope, Fanny's light summer dress caught fire.
The death of Longfellow
He died on March 24, 1882.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is buried with both of his wives at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Longfellow's work
His work was immensely popular during his time and is still today although some modern critics consider him too sentimental.
Longfellow's home in Cambridge, the Longfellow National Historic Site, is a U.S. National Historic Site, National Historic Landmark, and on the National Register of Historic Places.
Quotations and manuscript
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And children coming home from school |
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