Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"At the door on summer evenings,

Sat the little Hiawatha;

Heard the whispering of the pine-trees,

Sounds of music, words of wonder (...)"



Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine. His father, Stephen Longfellow, was a Portland lawyer and congressman, and mother, Zilpah, was the daughter of General Peleg Wadsworth and a descendant of John Alden of the 'Mayflower'. Longfellow was fond of reading - Washington Irving's Sketch-Book which was his favorite and at thirteen he wrote his first poem, 'The Battle of Lovell's Pond,' which appeared in Portland Gazette. Among Longfellow's classmates at Bowdoin College was Nathaniel Hawthorne, whom he helped later reviewing warmly his Twice-Told Tales. Before leaving the college, Longfellow had planned to become a writer, and wrote to his father: "The fact is, I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature; my whole soul burns most ardently for it, and every earthly thought centers in it..."

Longfellow's translation of Horace earned him a scholarship for further studies. After graduating in 1825 he traveled in Italy, France and Spain from 1826 to 1829, and returned to the United States to work as a professor and librarian in Bodwoin. He translated for his students in French grammar, and edited a collection of French proverbs and a small Spanish reader. In 1831 he married Mart Storer Potter, and travelled with her on another journey to Europe, where he studied Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and the Dutch language and literature. On this trip he fell under the influence of German Romanticism. Longfellow's wife died at Rotterdam in 1835. Three years later he wrote of her the touching poem, 'Footsteps of Angels.' In 1839 he published the romantic novel Hyperion and a collection of poems Voice of the Night, which became very popular, but was sharply criticized by Edgar Allan Poe. In 1840 he wrote 'The Skeleton in Armor' and The Spanish Student, a drama in five acts. Longfellow went to Europe for the third time in 1842. He wrote several poems on slavery, publishing them in a pamphlet upon his return.

In 1836 Longfellow began teaching in Harvard, taking lodgings at the historic Craigie House, where General Washington and his wife had lived. He dreamed there that J.W. Goethe might come to Cambridge, and duly wrote Hiawatha. Longfellow was married twice - after the death of his first wife he married in 1843, Frances Appleton, the daughter of a prominent Boston merchant, the Mary Ashburton of Hyperion. He resigned from his post in 1854 and published next year his best-know narrative poem, The Song of Hiawatha, which gained immediate success. Frances died tragically in 1861 by burning - her dress caught fire from a lighted match. Longfellow settled in Cambridge, where he remained for the rest of his life, although he spent summers at his home at Nahant. In 1868 Longfellow made his last visit to Europe with his three daughters. He spent two days with the English poet Alfred Tennyson in the Isle of Wright. Queen Victoria, who was his great admirer, invited him to tea. In Rome he saw Liszt, who set to music the introduction to The Golden Legend (1851).


Longfellow's later poetry reflects his interest in establishing an American mythology. Among his other works are The courtship of Miles Standish (1858), Tales of a wayside Inn(1863), translation of Dante´s The Divine Comedy (1865-67) and Christus-A Mystery(1872), a trilogy dealing with Christianity from its beginnings, which was intended to be Longfellow's masterpiece. The poet's 70th birthday in 1877 was celebrated around the country. Longfellow died in Cambridge on March 24, 1882. In London his marble image is seen in Westminster Abbey, in the Poet's Corner.


For further reading: Henry Wadsworth Longellow: America's Beloved Poet by Bonnie L. Lukes (1998); Longfellow: His Life and Work by Newton Arvin (1977); Longfellow and Scandinavia by Andrew Hilen (1970); Young Longfellow by L.R. Thompson (1938) - See also: Elias Lönnrot, Ivan Bunin - Museums: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's House, 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Longfellow's Wayside Inn, off route 20, Sudbury, Concord - Note: Longfellow's brother Samuel Longfellow (1819-1892), clergyman and poet, had close contacts with Transcendentalist movement. He published religious lyrics, articles, and essays.

'The Three Silences of Molinos'

Three Silences there are: the first of speech,

The second of desire, the third of thought;

This is the lore of a Spanish monk, distraught

With dreams and visions, was the first to teach.

These Silences, commingling each with each,

Made up the perfect Silence that he sought

And prayed for, and wherein at times he caught

Mysterious sounds from realms beyond our reach.

O thou, whose daily life anticipates

The life to come, and in whose thought and word

The spiritual world preponderates,

Hermit of Amesbury, thou too hast heard

Voices and melodies from beyond the gates,

And speakest only when thy soul is stirred!

(to John Greenleaf Whittier)