Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1807-1882

Life facts

• Born in Portland, Maine

• Went to and later taught at Bowdoin College

• Also taught at Harvard

• Became a full time writer in 1854

• First poetry collection: Voices of the Night

• Was the first American to translate Dante’s Divine Comedy

Wives

• Mary Potter died in 1835 from a miscarriage

• Frances Appleton died in 1861 after her dress caught on fire– The burns Longfellow

sustained trying to save her disfigured him, and that’s why he always had a beard thereafter

– He was devastated by her death and took to ether and laudanum

About his writing

• Most of his poems are lyric poetry– But very versatile in his forms– Musicality of his poems.– He said, “What a writer asks of a reader is not

so much to like as to listen.”

Critical response

• Lauded

• Best seller—most popular poet of his day

• Critics say he played too much to the masses and that he copied European forms of poetry

• Poe thought he was the “best poet in America”

The Longfellow War

• Despite what Poe said about him, Poe later accused Longfellow of plagiarism.

• He said Longfellow was “a determined imitator and a dextrous adapter of the ideas of other people.”

• Longfellow’s response: “The harshness of his criticisms I have never attributed to anything but the irritation of a sensitive nature chafed by some indefinite sense of wrong”

“Paul Revere’s Ride”

• Famous first lines, “Listen my children and you will hear/of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.”

• Tale of Paul Revere who warned Americans if the British were attacking by land or by sea.

“Wreck of the Hesperus”

• Narrative poem• A ship that sank

because of the captain’s pride– Captain ignored

approaching storm– Tied his daughter to

the mast to protect her– Everyone dies…

• obviously

“Song of Hiawatha”

• Epic poem• First realistic

depiction of Native Americans

“The Children’s Hour”

• Idealizes family life– Featuring Longfellow’s

daughters

• Frequently cited

•Oft-studied poem

Read the poem

• With your pencil, underline any words you don’t know or references you don’t get (Bishop who?)

• In your journal (#7?):– What is this poem about?– What do you think of the rhythm of the poem?– What is the mood or tone of this poem?– Do you like this poem? Why or why not?

Listen

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsqu_2jJgjs

How does this interpretation change your perception of the

poem?• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v

=aw-f9AReDvI’