Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Is Considered the Most Popular American Poet of the 19Th Century. He Was Born in 1807, the Same Year

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is considered the most popular American poet of the 19th century. He was born in 1807, the same year as another famous poet, John Greenleaf Whittier. As a boy, he loved to read and studied many of the English poets, though according to The Book of Knowledge published by the Grolier Society in 1911, his favorite book was Washington Irving’s “Sketch Book.”

By the time he had graduated from Portland Academy, he had become known as a fluent translator and was offered a job as a professor of modern languages. He traveled abroad in Europe for several years as he prepared to take the job.

His first published work, a collection of travel sketches from his time in Europe, did not succeed. But in 1839, he published a collection of poems called Voices of the Night. This collection became wildly popular, and he followed it by publishing a romantic novel called Hyperion. Two years later, in 1841, he published a second collection of poems called Ballads and Other Poems. It is in this collection that you will find his incredibly popular poems “The Wreck of the Hesperus” and “The Village Blacksmith.” In 1842, he spoke out against slavery in Poems on Slavery, and in 1847, he published the poem Evangeline, the romantic story of a man and woman separated by the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia.

Henry served as professor of Harvard’s modern language program for eighteen years until 1854. After retiring from that position, he went on to write The Song of Hiawatha, The Courtship of Miles Standish, and Tales of a Wayside Inn.

He played a unique role in bringing European literary treasures to America, such as with his translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, and in sharing American history, though he sometimes took literary license with the facts as in “Paul Revere’s Ride.” He died on March 24, 1882.

On the following pages you will find a timeline of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s life and a notebooking page. Do some research into the life and work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and record your observations as you look more closely at the life of this famous author.

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Timeline

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born 1807

1825 1831 1835 1839 1842 1847 1855 1858 1863 1882

Died in Cambridge, Mass.

Married Mary Storer Potter

Published first collection of poems

Published Evangeline

Graduated from Bowdoin College

Published “The Village Blacksmith”

Published The Song of Hiawatha

Wife died

Published The Courtship of Miles Standish

“Paul Revere’s Ride” first published in a book

Answer Key Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Timeline

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born 1807

1825 Graduated from Bowdoin College

Married Mary Storer Potter 1831

1835 Wife died

Published first collection of poems 1839

1842 Published “The Village Blacksmith”

Published Evangeline 1847

1855 Published The Song of Hiawatha

Published The Courtship of Miles Standish 1858 “Paul Revere’s Ride” first published in a 1863 book

Died in Cambridge, Mass. 1882