Today is the anniversary of the 1807 birth of the great Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, arguably the quintessential American poet. Longfellow was the grandson of Revolutionary Patriot General Peleg Wadsworth and the nephew of Henry Wadsworth, who died at Tripoli. Through childhood, college, professorship, international travels, marriages, fatherhood, and poetic career, Longfellow always held on to his ideals, including his patriotism. “Paul Revere’s Ride” and “Hiawatha” are magnificent examples of the best of Americanism passionately alive and strongly moving. There are villains and failings and sins in Longfellow’s poetry, but he truly believed that every man and woman can be great, that each individual can reach the heights, physical or moral (and regardless of race—he was firmly anti-slavery). That is why he is so particularly an American poet, our nation’s storyteller.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, America’s Poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, America’s Poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, America’s Poet
Today is the anniversary of the 1807 birth of the great Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, arguably the quintessential American poet. Longfellow was the grandson of Revolutionary Patriot General Peleg Wadsworth and the nephew of Henry Wadsworth, who died at Tripoli. Through childhood, college, professorship, international travels, marriages, fatherhood, and poetic career, Longfellow always held on to his ideals, including his patriotism. “Paul Revere’s Ride” and “Hiawatha” are magnificent examples of the best of Americanism passionately alive and strongly moving. There are villains and failings and sins in Longfellow’s poetry, but he truly believed that every man and woman can be great, that each individual can reach the heights, physical or moral (and regardless of race—he was firmly anti-slavery). That is why he is so particularly an American poet, our nation’s storyteller.