Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wiki

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Birthplace of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Portland, Maine, c. 1910; the house was demolished in 1955.
Longfellow circa 1850

In his senior year, Longfellow wrote to his father about his aspirations:

I will not disguise it in the least…the fact is, I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature, my whole soul burns most ardently after it, and every earthly thought centres in it…I am almost confident in believing, that if I can ever rise in the world it must be by the exercise of my talents in the wide field of literature.[17]

Grave of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mount Auburn Cemetery
Courtesy Midnightdreary

(February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator whose works include “Paul Revere’s Ride“, The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to translate Dante Alighieri‘s Divine Comedy and was one of the Fireside Poets from New England.