Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine. After graduating from Bowdoin College, he studied modern languages in Europe for three years and then returned to Bowdoin to teach. In 1831 he married Mary Storer Potter of Portland, a former classmate, but in November 1835, Mary died during a miscarriage. Longfellow took a position at Harvard in 1836 and within the next few years published two poetry collections that became very popular. He married Frances Appleton, a young woman from Boston, and they had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood. In 1847, he published Evangeline, a book-length poem that remains an American classic. In 1854, Longfellow published Hiawatha, a long poem about Native American life that is also a classic in American poetry. A few months after the Civil War began in 1861, his beloved wife was burnt to death in a terrible domestic accident. In 1882, after the poet’s death, Walt Whitman wrote that Longfellow “comes as the poet of melancholy, courtesy, deference — poet of all sympathetic gentleness — and a universal poet of women and young people.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine. After graduating from Bowdoin College, he studied modern languages in Europe for three years and then returned to Bowdoin to teach. In 1831 he married Mary Storer Potter of Portland, a former classmate, but in November 1835, Mary died during a miscarriage. Longfellow took a position at Harvard in 1836 and within the next few years published two poetry collections that became very popular. He married Frances Appleton, a young woman from Boston, and they had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood. In 1847, he published Evangeline, a book-length poem that remains an American classic. In 1854, Longfellow published Hiawatha, a long poem about Native American life that is also a classic in American poetry. A few months after the Civil War began in 1861, his beloved wife was burnt to death in a terrible domestic accident. In 1882, after the poet’s death, Walt Whitman wrote that Longfellow “comes as the poet of melancholy, courtesy, deference — poet of all sympathetic gentleness — and a universal poet of women and young people.”
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