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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)
Probably one of the best loved American poets the world over is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Many of his lines are as familiar to us as rhymes from Mother Goose or the words of nursery
songs learned in early childhood. Like these rhymes and melodies, they remain in the memory
and accompany us through life.
There are 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.
Read or heard once or twice, his rhyme and meters cling to the mind long after the sense may
be forgotten.
Second, Longfellow wrote on obvious themes which appeal to all kinds of people. His poems
are easily understood; 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
life which evokes immediate response in the emotions of his readers.
Americans owe a great debt to Longfellow because he was among the first of American writers
to use native themes. He wrote about the American scene andlandscape, the American Indian
('Song of Hiawatha'), and American history and tradition ('The Courtship of Miles
Standish', 'Evangeline'). At the beginning of the 19th century, America was a stumbling
babe as far as a culture of its own was concerned. The people of America had spent their
years and their energies in carving a habitation out of the wilderness and in fighting for
independence. Literature, art, and music came mainly from Europe and especially from
England. Nothing was considered worthy of attention unless it came from Europe.
But "the flowering of New England," as Van Wyck Brooks terms the period from 1815 to 1865,
took place in Longfellow's day, and he made a great contribution to it. He lived when
giants walked the New England earth, giants of intellect and feeling who established the New
Land as a source of greatness. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David
Thoreau, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and William Prescott were a few of the great minds and
spirits among whom Longfellow took his place as a singer and as a representative of
America.
The first Longfellow came to America in 1676 from Yorkshire, England. Among the ancestors
of the poet on his mother's side were John and Priscilla Alden, of whom he wrote in 'The
Courtship of Miles Standish'. His mother's father, Peleg Wadsworth, had been a general
in the Revolutionary War. His own father was a lawyer. The Longfellow home represented the
graceful living which was beginning to characterize the age.
Henry was the son of Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah Wadsworth Longfellow. He was born
February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine. Portland was a seaport, and this gave its citizens a
breadth of view lacking in the more insular New England towns. The variety of people and
the activity of the harbors stirred the mind of the boy and gave him a curiosity about life
beyond his own immediate experience. He was sent to school when he was only three years
old. When he was six, the following report of him was received at home: "Master Henry
Longfellow is one of the best boys we have in school. He spells and reads very well. He
can also add and multiply numbers. His conduct last quarter was very correct and
amiable."
From the beginning, it was evident that this boy was to be drawn to writing and the sound of
words. His mother read aloud to him and his brothers and sisters the high romance of
Ossian, the legendary Gaelic hero. Cervantes' 'Don Quixote' was a favorite among the
books he read. But the book which influenced him most was Washington Irving's 'Sketch
Book'. Irving was another American author for whom the native legend and landscape were
sources of inspiration.
"Every reader has his first book," wrote Longfellow later. "I mean to say, one book among
all others which in early youth first fascinates his imagination, and at once excites and
satisfies the desires of his mind. To me, the first book was the 'Sketch Book' of
Washington Irving."
Longfellow's father was eager to have his son become a lawyer. But when Henry was a senior
at Bowdoin College at 19, the college established a chair of modern languages. The recent
graduate was asked to become the first professor, with the understanding that he should be
given a period of time in which to trave land study in Europe.
In May of 1826, the fair-haired youth with the azure blue eyes set out for Europe to turn
himself into a scholar and a linguist. He had letters of introduction to men of note in
England and France, but he had his own idea of how to travel. Between conferences with
important people and courses in the universities, Longfellow walked through the countries.
He stopped at small inns and cottages, talking to peasants, farmers, traders, his silver
flute in his pocket as a passport to friendship. He travelled in Spain, Italy, France,
Germany, and England, and returned to America in 1829. At 22, he was launched into his
career as a college professor. He had to prepare his own texts, because at that time none
were available.
Much tribute is due him as a teacher. Just as he served America in making the world
conscious of its legend and tradition, so he opened to his students and to the American
people the literary heritage of Europe. He created in them the new consciousness of the
literature of Spain, France, Italy, and especially writings from the German, Nordic, and
Icelandic cultures.
In 1831, he married Mary Storer Potter, whom he had known as a schoolmate. When he saw her
at church upon his return to Portland, he was so struck by her beauty that he followed her
home without courage enough to speak to her. With his wife, he settled down in a house
surrounded by elm trees. He expended his energies on translations from Old World literature
and contributed travel sketches to the New England Magazine, in addition to serving as a
professorand a librarian at Bowdoin.
In 1834, he was appointed to a professorship at Harvard and once more set out for Europe by
way of preparation. This time his young wife accompanied him. The journey ended in tragedy.
In Rotterdam, his wife died, and Longfellow came alone to Cambridge and the new
professorship. The lonely Longfellow took a room at historic Craigie House, an old house
overlooking the Charles River. It was owned by Mrs. Craigie, an eccentric woman who kept
much to herself and was somewhat scornful of the young men to whom she let rooms. But she
read widely and well, and her library contained complete sets of Voltaire and other French
masters. Longfellow entered the beautiful old elm-encircled house as a lodger, not knowing
that this was to be his home for the rest of his life. In time, it passed into the
possession of Nathan Appleton. Seven years after he came to Cambridge, Longfellow married
Frances Appleton, daughter of Nathan Appleton, and Craigie House was given to the
Longfellows as a wedding gift.
Meantime, in the seven intervening years, 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, wrote 'The Spanish Student', and took his
stand with the abolitionists, returning to be married in 1843.
The marriage was a happy one, and the Longfellow house became the center of life in the
University town. The old Craigie House was a shrine of hospitality and gracious living.
The young people of Cambridge flocked there to play with the five Longfellow children - two
boys, and the three girls whom the poet describes in 'The Children's Hour' as "grave
Alice and laughing Allegra and Edith with golden hair."
From his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, Longfellow got a brief outline of a story from which he
composed one of his most favorite poems, 'Evangeline'. The original story had Evangeline
wandering about New England in search of her bridegroom. Longfellow extended her journey
through Louisiana and the western wilderness. She finds Gabriel, at last, dying in
Philadelphia.
'Evangeline' was published in 1847 and was widely acclaimed. Longfellow began to
feel that his work as a teacher was a hindrance to his own writing. In 1854, he resigned
from Harvard and with a great sense of freedom gave himself entirely to the joyous task of
his own poetic writing. In June of that year, he began 'The Song of Hiawatha'.
Henry Schoolcraft's book on Indians and several meetings with an Ojibway chief provided the
background for 'Hiawatha'. The long poem begins with Gitche Matino, the Great Spirit,
commanding his people to live in peace and tells how Hiawatha is born. It ends with the
coming of the white man and Hiawatha's death.
The publication of 'Hiawatha' caused the greatest excitement. For the first time in
American literature, Indian themes gained recognition as sources of imagination, power, and
originality. The appeal of 'Hiawatha' for generations of children and young people gives it
an enduring place in world literature.
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 he 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 publication.
In 1861, the happy life of the family came to an end. Longfellow's wife died of burns she
received when packages of her children's curls, which she wassealing with matches and wax,
burst into flame. Longfellow faced the bitterest tragedy of his life. He found some solace
in the task of translating Dante into English and went to Europe for a change of scene. The
years following were filled with honors. He was given honorary degrees at the great
universities of Oxford and Cambridge, invited to Windsor by Queen Victoria, and called by
request upon the Prince of Wales. He was chosen a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
and of the Spanish Academy.
When it became necessary to remove "the spreading chestnut tree" of Brattle Street, which
Longfellow had written about in his 'Village Blacksmith', the children of Cambridge
gave their pennies to build a chair out of the tree and gave it to Longfellow. He died on
March 24, 1882. "Of all the suns of the New England morning," says Van Wyck Brooks, "he was
the largest in his golden sweetness."
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