Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• 1807-1882

2
Life facts

• Born in Portland, Maine
• Went to and later taught at Bowdoin College
• Also taught at Harvard

3
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 thats why he always had a
  beard thereafter
• He was devastated by her death and took to ether
  and laudanum

4
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.

5
Critical response

• Lauded
• Best sellermost popular poet of his day

6
Paul Reveres 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.

7
Wreck of the Hesperus

• Narrative poem
• A ship that sank because of the captains pride
• Captain ignored approaching storm
• Tied his daughter to the mast to protect her
• Everyone dies
• obviously

8
Song of Hiawatha

• Epic poem
• First realistic depiction of Native Americans

9
Evangeline

• Longfellows tale about the expulsion of the
  Acadians from Canada to Lousiana

10
Courtship of Miles Standish

• Longfellows Puritan poem