![]() Profoundly saddened, Longfellow published nothing for the next two years. Despite her husband’s desperate attempts to save her, she died the next day. With the country moving toward civil war, he wrote “ Paul Revere’s Ride,” a call for courage in the coming conflict.Ī few months after the war began in 1861, Frances Longfellow was sealing an envelope with wax when her dress caught fire. Both books were immensely successful, but Longfellow was now preoccupied with national events. He published Hiawatha, a long poem about Native American life, and The Courtship of Miles Standish and Other Poems. In 1854, Longfellow decided to quit teaching to devote all his time to poetry. In 1847, he published Evangeline, a book-length poem about what would now be called “ethnic cleansing.” The poem takes place as the British drive the French from Nova Scotia, and two lovers are parted, only to find each other years later when the man is about to die. The couple had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood, and the marriage gave him new confidence. In addition, Frances Appleton, a young woman from Boston, had refused his proposal of marriage.įrances finally accepted Longfellow’s proposal the following spring, ushering in the happiest eighteen years of Longfellow’s life. Both books were very popular, but Longfellow’s growing duties as a professor left him little time to write more. Many of these poems (“A Psalm of Life,” for example) showed people triumphing over adversity, and in a struggling young nation that theme was inspiring. Three years later, at the age of thirty-two, he published his first collection of poems, Voices of the Night, followed in 1841 by Ballads and Other Poems. Longfellow took a position at Harvard in 1836. The young teacher spent a grief-stricken year in Germany and Switzerland. But, in November 1835, during a second trip to Europe, Longfellow’s life was shaken when his wife died during a miscarriage. In 1831, he married Mary Storer Potter of Portland, a former classmate, and soon published his first book, a description of his travels called Outre Mer (“Overseas”). His father, Stephen Longfellow, was a prominent Portland lawyer and later a member of Congress.Īfter graduating from Bowdoin College, Longfellow studied modern languages in Europe for three years, then returned to Bowdoin to teach them. His mother, Zilpah Wadsworth, was the daughter of a Revolutionary War hero. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine-then still part of Massachusetts-on February 27, 1807, the second son in a family of eight children.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |