Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) was an American poet and educator, among the most widely read poets of his century and the author of “Paul Revere's Ride,” The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline. Born in Portland, Maine, he graduated from Bowdoin College, studied languages in Europe, and taught modern languages at Bowdoin and Harvard until 1854, when he left teaching to write. His narrative poems gave Americans stories of their own past, while lyrics such as “A Psalm of Life” and “The Village Blacksmith” praised duty, work and perseverance. After the death of his wife Fanny in 1861, he found solace in translating Dante's Divine Comedy, the first complete American translation (1867), and in 1863 wrote “Christmas Bells,” affirming that “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.” In 1884 he was the first American honored with a memorial bust in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.
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The Epic Tradition: Homer to Longfellow
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey set the pattern for epic poetry in the West. In the Divine Comedy, Dante honors Homer as the foremost of the ancient poets and journeys toward the vision of God. Milton took up the epic form for a Christian theme in Paradise Lost, telling of the fall and the promise of redemption. Longfellow published an English translation of the Divine Comedy in 1867 and wrote long narrative poems such as Evangeline and The Song of Hiawatha.
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