Born: February 27, 1807 Died: March 24, 1882
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the most celebrated and widely read American poets of the 19th century—so beloved, in fact, that schoolchildren once recited his verses the way we might quote movie lines today. A master of narrative poetry and gentle lyricism, Longfellow gave America some of its first truly iconic poetic voices, blending European influence with a growing sense of national identity.
Early Life and Education
Born on February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine (back when it was still part of Massachusetts), Longfellow was a precocious student with a love for reading and language. He graduated from Bowdoin College at just 19, where he was classmates with another future literary heavyweight—Nathaniel Hawthorne. After college, Longfellow embarked on a European tour to study languages, which sparked his lifelong fascination with translation and continental literature.
Academic and Literary Career
Upon returning to the U.S., Longfellow began teaching modern languages at Bowdoin, and later at Harvard. But it was his writing that would bring him lasting fame. His early poetry was well-received, but it was works like Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858) that truly captured the public imagination.
Longfellow had a knack for combining accessible rhythm and meter with rich, romanticized storytelling—his poems often felt like folktales passed down through generations. He also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy into English, an enormous literary feat that helped raise the profile of classical literature in America.
Personal Life and Tragedy
Longfellow’s life was marked by both intellectual success and deep personal tragedy. He lost his first wife, Mary, to a miscarriage, and his second wife, Fanny, died in a tragic fire at home—an event that left Longfellow physically scarred and emotionally shattered. He never fully recovered, either from grief or from the burns on his face.
Still, he continued writing, producing some of his most poignant works later in life. His poem The Cross of Snow, unpublished during his lifetime, is a haunting tribute to Fanny’s memory.
Legacy
By the time of his death in 1882, Longfellow was a household name. He was the first American to be honored with a bust in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey—proof of his international acclaim. Though literary tastes have shifted and critics have debated his sentimentality, Longfellow’s contributions to American literature are indisputable.
He made poetry feel approachable, musical, and distinctly human—and for generations of Americans, his verses were the soundtrack of childhood and nationhood.
