The Life and Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: A Life in Poetry
Early Life and Education
February 27, 1807: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born
1813: Begins attending Portland Academy
1820: First published poem, “The Battle of Lovell’s Pond,” appears in the Portland Gazette
1821: Enrolled at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME. Stays in Portland for the first year of studies
1825: Graduates from Bowdoin College
Travels, Teaching, and Marriage
1826-1829: Travels and studies in Europe
1829-1835: Teaches at Bowdoin College
1831: Marries Mary Potter
1835: Outre-Mer published. Returns to Europe with Mary and two friends. Mary dies in Rotterdam
1836: Meets Frances Appleton. Returns to the US from his second tour of Europe, moves to Cambridge, MA to begin professorship at Harvard
Literary Success and Family Life
1839: Voices of the Night and Hyperion published
1843: Marries Fanny (Frances Appleton)
1844-1855: Henry and Fanny have six children (Charles, Ernest, Frances, Alice, Edith, and Anne)
1847: Publishes Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie
1854: Retires from teaching
1855: Publishes The Song of Hiawatha
1861: Fanny dies
1863: Publishes Tales of a Wayside Inn
1867: Publishes a translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy
1868: Received by Queen Victoria
1882: Longfellow dies
Key Themes and Influences
Psalm of Life
Over the past 150 years, Longfellow has remained one of America’s most popular poets. He wrote about American subjects and sought inspiration in American history and the country’s landscape. He believed his task in writing was to create a common heritage for Americans.
The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls
As a boy, Longfellow lived in Portland, Maine, near the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Imagery inspired by the coastal landscape plays a role in many of his poems. As he grew older, Longfellow reviewed his childhood memories through the lens of Romanticism. In several poems, natural images, such as the behavior of the water as the tide rises and falls, represent the vast cycles of nature—of which humans are only a very small part.