Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was probably the best loved of all American poets, and for good reason. His rhymes remain in the mind because of their melodic quality, and his themes are familiar to all kinds of people the world over. The most obvious appeal that Longfellow's poetry has is its spirit of optimism and faith in the goodness of life which has the power to lift any reader's spirit.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born to Stephen and Zilpah Wadsworth Longfellow on February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine. Because this was a seaport town the citizens had a breadth of view no landlocked citizens had. Longfellow was intrigued by the variety of people and activity of the harbors, and he became curious about life beyond the borders of his world. He started school at age three and was an exceptional student. Soon it became obvious that young Henry was drawn to words and writing, probably due to his mother's reading aloud to him and his brothers and sisters. One of his favorites was Cervantes' Don Quixote, but the book that most influenced him was Washington Irving's Sketch Book. This book instilled in him his love of native legend and landscape.
Longfellow House, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Longfellow's father wanted Henry to become a lawyer, but when Henry was a senior at Bowdoin College at age 19, the college established a chair of modern languages. As a recent graduate, he was asked to become the first professor with a period of time to study in Europe. In May of 1826 Henry set out for Europe to become a linguist and a scholar. Between conferences and university courses, Longfellow walked through the countries, stopping at small inns and cottages and talking to the people he met along the way. After travels in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and England, he returned to America in 1829. At age 22 he started his work as a college professor. He introduced the literary heritage of Europe to his students and to the American people. He married Mary Storer Potter in 1831 and settled down in a house surrounded by elm trees. He used his time to translate Old World literature and to contribute travel sketches to the New England Magazine, in addition to serving as professor and librarian at Bowdoin.
Upon being appointed to a professorship at Harvard in 1834, Longfellow and his wife set out for Europe for preparation. The trip ended in tragedy as his wife died in Rotterdam. Longfellow settled into a professorship at Cambridge alone. He took a room at Craigie House, a move which ended seven years later in marriage to Frances Appleton. Longfellow and his new wife received Craigie House as a wedding present, and it was in this house that Longfellow would spend the rest of his life. In the years before his marriage to Frances, he published Hyperion, a prose romance foreshadowing his love for Frances, and Voices of the Night, his first book of poems. Included in this collection was "A Psalm of Life." He once again travelled to Europe, wrote The Spanish Student, and took his stand with the abolitionists. Longfellow married Frances Appleton in 1843.
The marriage was happy, and the Longfellow home became the center of life in the University town. The old Craigie House was a fine example of hospitality and gracious living. The youth of Cambridge came there to play with the five Longfellow children, two boys and three girls.
Longfellow published Evangeline in 1847 from a brief outline he got from his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. The poem received wide acclaim. It was around this time that Longfellow began to feel that his teaching was hindering his own writing, so in 1854 he resigned from Harvard. With his newfound freedom, Longfellow was able to give himself entirely to the task of poetic writing. In June of the same year, he began work on "The Song of Hiawatha". This work caused great excitement because for the first time in American literature, Indian themes gained recognition as sources of imagination, power, and originality. He next published "The Courtship of Miles Standish" in 1858 and enjoyed great success with this work as well.
In 1861 the pastoral existence of the Longfellow family came crashing to a halt. Longfellow's wife died of burns she received when packages of the children's curls that she was sealing with matches and wax burst into flames. Longfellow, faced with the bitterest tragedy of his life, threw himself into translating Dante into English and travelling to Europe for a change of scenery.
The following years were filled with honors for Longfellow. He received honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, was invited to Windsor by Queen Victoria, and was called by request upon the Prince of Wales. He became a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and of the Spanish Academy.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow died on March 24, 1882 at the age of 75, and the world lost one of the greatest poets of all time. His poem, "A Psalm of Life," gives his view on how we should live our lives to the fullest, much like Longfellow himself did.
Taken from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Biography by Roberto Rabe.
