In this blog post, I will take a closer look at Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s life, his body of work, and his literary significance.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) is one of the most widely recognized poets not only in the United States but throughout the world. It is interesting to note that two distinct images often come to mind when thinking of him. One is that of a white-haired, elderly poet with a holy, saint-like demeanor; the other is that of a young, spirited scholar-poet who taught foreign languages at Harvard University and traveled extensively throughout Europe.
He was revered as America’s national poet, known as the “Poet of the Hearth” and the “Poet of the Classroom,” and enjoyed such high prestige in Europe that he served as an unofficial cultural ambassador for the United States. His trip to Europe—undertaken to study foreign languages in preparation for a professorship at his alma mater, Bowdoin College—provided him with a solid foundation not only as a poet but also as a scholar through extensive reading and diverse experiences.
However, a personal tragedy that occurred during his second trip to Europe—the death of his first wife, Mary, in 1835—gave the young poet an early taste of life’s bitterness. Meanwhile, his career as a professor at Harvard provided the foundation for him to write poetry and prose actively, leading to the publication of his first poetry collection, ‘Voices of the Night’, in 1839. The representative poem in this collection, “Ode to Life,” is read as the cry of a young heart that extols conviction and courage over disappointment and regret, urging readers to live their short lives to the fullest.
Longfellow’s upbringing also had a profound influence on his poetic world. He spent his childhood in Portland, a port city in the northeastern state of Maine, and had a particular love for the sea. In his poetry, images of the sea—such as the ebb and flow of the tides, its turbulence and tranquility, and the drifting seaweed and shipwrecks—are often used as metaphors for life.
In 1854, he resigned from his professorship to devote himself entirely to poetry, thereby resolving the long-standing conflict between his roles as a poet and a professor. Craigie House in Cambridge, where he lived after his second marriage, became a pilgrimage site for literary figures, attracting many writers. Among them was the British novelist Charles Dickens.
His family life was very peaceful for a time. After remarrying his second wife, Appleton, he raised two sons and four daughters over the course of 18 years, building a harmonious family that was the envy of others. However, a series of misfortunes also befell him. Following the death of his four-year-old daughter Fanny, on July 9, 1861, a spark flew while he was sealing a box containing his two daughters’ hair with beeswax, setting his wife’s skirt on fire. His wife suffered severe burns to her face and hands and died the next day; Longfellow himself was so badly burned while trying to extinguish the fire that he was unable to attend the funeral.
His grief was immense, but he kept it to himself as much as possible, not letting it show outwardly. It was not until 18 years later that he briefly expressed it in the sonnet “The Snow Cross”: On a long, sleepless night, suddenly from the wall a gentle face—the face of one long dead—looks upon me.
Longfellow is not a poet known for passionate outbursts. Instead, he expressed what arose in his heart quietly and gently, sometimes with sweet music, sometimes like a vivid painting. He praised the life he loved and sang of compassion for humanity. For example, the simple songs that well up from the heart, as seen in works like “Arrows and Songs,” are the very essence of his poetry.
Let’s look at a portion of the poem “Standing in the Midst of Life,” which he wrote at age 35 and was published posthumously. Half of my life has already passed, yet time has flowed away in vain, and I have not achieved a single dream I had in my youth. That dream of building a tower of song upon the lofty castle walls!
In another poem, “As the Day Draws to a Close,” his unpretentious poetic philosophy is revealed even more clearly. Bring me the song of a more unpretentious poet. A song that wells up in my heart, just as a summer shower pours from the clouds and tears spring from the eyes.
Longfellow was also a skilled storyteller. His epic poem “Evangeline,” depicting the sublime love between a man and a woman, touched the hearts of many, and “The Song of Hiawatha,” chronicling the exploits of a brave and wise Native American chief, was also widely known. ‘Tales from the Wayside Inn’, a collection of 21 stories and legends set in an inn near Boston and told by a musician, a Jew, a poet, a theologian, a young Harvard student, and the innkeeper, demonstrates his talent for retelling old themes in a fresh and moving way. These works are significant in that they go beyond mere poetry to create an American mythology.
Along with his talent as a storyteller, Longfellow enjoyed writing ballad-style poetry. The fact that many of his poems consist of four lines is likely due to the influence of ballads. Ballads are narrative poems that tend to express universal emotions shared by the common people rather than the author’s personal sentiments. Therefore, Longfellow’s ballads clearly reveal his character as a poet of the people. A representative work is “The Village Blacksmith.” The blacksmith, a man of great strength, has large, knotted hands and muscular forearms as hard as iron; his hair is long and black and curly; his face is sun-tanned; his forehead is damp with the sweat of honest labor—a man who earns his living with his own hands.
He also enjoyed using concise forms such as the sonnet (a 14-line poem), which is not unrelated to his status as a lyric poet. As such, his poetry possesses elements that make it accessible to a wide audience. Although he did not primarily write direct commentary on social issues, he did leave behind several poems opposing slavery and war. Works such as “The Slave Hidden in the Dark Swamp,” “The Slave Singing in the Dead of Night,” “In the Churchyard at Cambridge,” and “The Nameless Grave” are examples of this; rather than strongly advocating for the abolition of slavery, they express his concerns in a way that evokes sympathy for the slaves.
In short, Longfellow was a gentle poet. Because of this disposition, he was sometimes criticized for lacking social concern or for being too didactic, scholarly, and staid; at other times, he was accused of being sentimental and overly optimistic. In response, he once remarked about his critics as follows: “Critics are often like woodpeckers: instead of enjoying the fruit and shade of a tree, they constantly circle the trunk, pecking holes in the bark in search of small insects.”
In fact, Longfellow, who was an idol of his time, was somewhat undervalued by the early 20th century. Nevertheless, there is no reason to reject his poems, which are filled with a warm, confident, and optimistic attitude, as well as an elegant and simple moral passion. Moreover, his efforts to adapt European themes to the American context, his celebration of the sentiments of the common people, and his experiments with national epics and narrative poetry deserve high praise. The novelist Henry James also praised him as a poet who successfully harmonized European and American cultures.
His global reputation is evident in many ways. He was awarded degrees by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England, appointed a member of the Royal Spanish Academy, and a bust of him was erected in the Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey. These honors underscore the widespread acclaim he received.
