Henry Long Fellow

Calixtro Santos Mrs. Wells English III -5 6 October, 2009 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow report Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born in February 27, 1807 was in a group called the fireside poets which includes famous poets like John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and William Cullen Bryant. Henry Longfellow was reputed to be the most popular poet of his day and the most outstanding poet the country had produced. Henry Longfellow was also consider one of the first American celebrities and was also well known in Europe. Henry parent’s Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah (Wadsworth) Longfellow had eight children and thanks to them we have one of our best know poet, who is Henry Longfellow. Henry was name after his mother’s brother Henry Wadsworth, a Navy lieutenant who died only three years earlier at the Battle of Tripoli which took place during the First Barbary War between the United States Marines and the forces of Tripoli. Henry went to dame school (a form of elementary school usually taught by women.) at the age of three and by the age of six he went to Portland Academy. At Portland Academy he was known as a very studious student and became fluent in Latin. His mom saw his hunger for knowledge and encourages it so that she introduced him to well know people like Don Quixote de la mancha. He stayed at Portland Academy till the age of 14. At age 15 Henry and his brother Stephen enrolled at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Henry’s grandfather was one of the founders of the college and his father was a trustee (whatever that is), but in the college Henry met Nathaniel Hawthorne a lifelong friend. This guy love literature a lot especially poetry that he wrote 40 minor poems between January 1824 and his graduation in 1825 ,but only 24 of them appeared in a newspaper call “The United States Literary Gazette” which didn’t last very long. Henry was rank fourth in his was and gave the student commencement address. After he graduate he work as a professor of modern languages, and Benjamin Orr had being very impressed by his translation of Horace that he was hired only if he travel to Europe to study French, Spanish, and Italian, but that’s only how a story goes but whatever it was that motivated him to travel the main point is that he travel. He began to travel Europe in May 1826 aboard the ship Cadmus. He travel for 3 years and it cost his father 2,604 dollars with 24 cents. France, Spain, Italy, Germany ,and England were the places he visited before he return to the United states in Mid-August 1829 ,but when he was traveling he learned French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, most without having a teacher. Henry spent time with Washington Irving in Madrid and kind love Irving’s work ethic. Irving encourages Henry to pursue his writing. While in Spain his sister Elizabeth died of tuberculosis at the young age of 20. Henry didn’t like the pay of $600 dollars so he wrote to the president of Bowdoin to increase his pay to more cash. His demands were pleasure and got a pay of $800 dollars plus $100 if he serve as the college’s librarian ,but even the pay didn’t really made up for the fact that he hate working at Bowdoin especially because he hate ink and paper. On September 14, 1831, Henry married Mary Storer Potter and settle in Brunswick, yet they hated the place. Josiah Quincy III, president of Harvard College offer him a job in Modern Languages on the

condition that he travel for a year, so he did and study German ,Dutch, Danish, Swedish , Finnish, and Icelandic. While Henry traveled his wife had a miscarriage at the six month of pregnancy and later died due to constantly being ill. Henry lamented her death and started to write poems like "One thought occupies me night and day... She is dead—She is dead! All day I am weary and sad" and other poems. Henry took the job at Harvard and war required to live in Cambridge to be close to the campus, so he rented rooms at the Craigie House in the spring of 1837. He was a good professor, but he disliked being “constantly a playmate for boys” rather than “Stretching out and grappling with men’s minds. Henry began flirting with Frances Appleton, the daughter of a wealthy Boston industrialist, Nathan Appleton and sister of Thomas Gold Appleton. Henry was very persistent and in 1839 he published Hyperion a book in prose inspired by his trips abroad and his unsuccessful courtship of Fanny Appleton (Frances Appleton). in 1842 Poems on Slavery were published as Henry’s support of abolitionism, but his poems were so mild that it was said that” a slaveholder might read it without losing his appetite for breakfast”. Finally after seven long years on May 10, 1843 Fanny Appleton agree to marry him. They married and their birthday present from Fanny’s father was the Craigie House where Henry would live the rest of his life in. Henry wrote “the Evening Star” and “O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus! My morning and my evening star of love!” which made his love for Fanny evident. Fanny and Henry had six children together and Henry’s salary kept increasing with each passing year. Fanny burn and later die when her dress caught on fire, though it is unclear exactly how it happened. Henry tried to save her and got his face burn so due to his facial injuries he stop shaving, therefore wearing the beard which has become his trade mark. He never fully recovered from her death and would beg not to be put in an asylum. Eighteen years pass and he wrote the poem “The Cross of Snow” to tell how nothing had change even when fanny was not with him. He was making over $48,000 per year by 1868 and supported abolitionism. He also hoped for the south and the north to recover from the American Civil War. In March 1882, Henry got a severe stomach pain and survived several days but later die on Friday, March 24, 1882 surrounded by his Family. Most of Henry work is categorized as lyric poetry, but he also tried many form like hexameter and free verse and others. He didn’t believe in adding autobiographical elements to his poetry and he would pick his subject for a long time. Allegory, didacticism, metaphor he use often in his poems. While Henry was a great poet he was also a well know translator and it was his job as well. Henry Longfellow help shape the American character by poems like “Paul Revere’s Ride” and others. His subjects were pleasing to the majorities and he was criticize for that ,but to say the true is isn’t ever criticize and why is criticism taken as something bad may be is because he was doing something good, but I do hate the guy because of him I am writing this report.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow