Andrew Lewis
Mrs. Youngblood
English 10
11 February, 2016
Final Paper
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a famous American poet who was born on February 27, 1807 in Portland, Maine. He lived to be seventy five years old, and was best known for poems such as “The Courtship of Miles Standish”, “Paul Revere’s Ride”, and “The Song of Hiawatha”. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s writings were influenced because of his past experiences, and his writings influenced other writers and the thoughts of his readers.
Longfellow had many interesting past experiences that led to the way he wrote. He grew up in a wealthy family. Longfellow’s father was a successful lawyer and a politician. Henry’s mother loved reading books and she influenced his love for writing.
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When he married Frances Appleton, her father gave them a house in Boston as a gift for their wedding which was called the Craigie House. George Washington used to live in this home. “Their home became a meeting place for students as well as literary and philosophical figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Julia Ward Howe, and Charles Sumner.” (Oakes 2). Another poet named Nathaniel Hawthorne was Longfellow’s classmate in college (Hacht and Kelly 185). While living at the Craigie House, Longfellow published Voices of the Night which was a collection of poems that he …show more content…
“Longfellow wrote about themes that appeal to all kinds of people; his poems are easily understood. Above all, there is joyousness in them, a spirit of optimism and faith in the goodness of life; his writing evokes immediate responses in the emotions of his readers” (Longfellow 1). Also, he travelled a lot to other countries and studied their language and culture which he would describe in his writings to grab the reader’s attention. (Hacht and Kelly 178). In 1836, Longfellow published a group of poems, and he called them Voices of the Night. It contained the poems: “Hymn to the Night,” “The Psalm of Life,” and “The Light of the Stars, and achieved immediate popularity from it. At the time of Longfellow's death, people referred to him as a “conspicuous force in nature” (Hacht and Kelly 178). Through his writings, Longfellow had made readers aware of the cultural differences of the world. In 1855, he wrote Song of Hiawatha which was an “epic poem about the relationship between a white man and a Native American.” (Longfellow 1)
While living in Germany, Longfellow was greatly influenced by German Romanticism. The age of romanticism was “a time when American literature began to separate from England and established its own voice and identity” (Hacht and Kelly 185). The age of romanticism came with many of the most influential writers and poets of our time, and Longfellow
The Romanticism era let writers express their thoughts about various ideas through their words. While some focused on nature or the imagination, others wrote about their own opinions on different subject matter. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Henry David Thoreau both depicted their individual thoughts in their works. To convey specific truths about life, Longfellow and Thoreau use their own views in their writings to reveal the truths.
One way Longfellow makes his readers want to read on is using rhyming words at the end of each line in a stanza. For example, in stanza 11, lines 104-110, “ He heard to bleating of the flock/ And the twitter of birds among the trees/ And felt the breath of the morning breeze/ Blowing over the meadows brown” These few lines use peaceful, and soothing words to allow the readers to feel safe. But, then longfellow dives into a
Foster’s musical career did not take off right away. He was considered unqualified to even consider a music career. He was sent to work for his brother, Dunning Foster, in a book store in Cincinnati. Foster’s Negro ballads such as: “Louisiana Belle”, “O Susanna”, “Uncle Ned”, and “Away Down South” became very popular. Another one of his works was published in 1849, called “Nelly was a Lady”. In 1850, several companies took Foster’s ballads, and “The Old Folks at Home” was published. In 1852, “Massa’s in the Cold Home” was published. Foster was becoming a sensational composer and
The two poems correspond to one another through similar themes and details covered. Both the writers deal with the regrets that they will have in their lives with a negative tone. Their aspiration to continue to write is experienced by them both although by Keats in a higher amount. Keats expresses this through lines 1-12 of his poem and Longfellow by his goal “to build/Some tower of song with lofty parapet” (2-3), because he too is a writer. The two poem’s structure included a rhyming scheme in order to point out important phrases and lines in the poems, such as the ending couplet in Keats’ poem.
In the first part of the poem Longfellow talks about his life being halfway over and everything that stopped him from really living his life. In the very first couple of lines he says “I have let the years slip from me and have not fulfilled the aspiration of my
First of all, he became a good writer by reading a lot. It is a well-known fact that the more you read, the better writer you will become. Explaining further, he was in third grade of high school when his sister handed her a book.
American Romanticism fell between the years of 1800 and 1860. America had just gained its independence from Great Britain followed by a war that ended just 17 years prior to the start of the Romantic period in writing. With America just getting on its feet and finding their voice in literature, they went through what seems to be a more odd stage in literature during this time period. This period in literature could be described as a time of finding idealism, and a time which writing was very subjective and imaginative.
•He knew little of his father, who died shortly after he was born. But he was socialized into a big family that made a strong impression on his personality and reflected in his later works in his future.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a husband of two wives. On September 14, 1831, he fist married with Mary Storer Potter, who is friend of childhood. The 5 years of happy life with Potter ended very badly. During his second European Trip, she suffered from miscarriage in October 1835. Mary's health declined over the next weeks and she died on 29 November. He was really saddened by her death. He wrote that “One thought occupies me night and day... She is dead — she is dead! All day I am weary and sad".
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American author who changed American Literature. He was a prodigy as a child and had sadness in his life that helped shape him into who he was. Longfellow wanted to enrich American Literature along with the other Fireside Poets. During and after his life he had received great awards, accomplishments, and praises. Longfellow was one of the most influential American Poets of the Romanticism.
Through the time from the Colonial period to the Romantic period there has been many influential writings and authors. Many of the works receive a more prominent place in history. From John Smith starting the Colonial Period of writing through Edgar Allan Poe's Romanticzied poems and short stories all hold great places in history. In many respects all the works of the authors and authors themselves all affected the movement of writing periods but some stood out more than others. John Smith, the American Revolutionary War, and Uncle Tom's Cabin are some of the most important and influential steps toward the evolution of American literature.
The romantic period in American literature is a very interesting one. It is filled with different interpretations of romanticism. Usually, you would expect romantic writing to be all lovey dovey and cheesy love stories. That’s not what it was all about. People were romanticized for different reasons that didn’t have to do with just love. People were romanticized for being heros. Nature was romanticized, and so was death. Some writers focused on the darker side of romanticism. It was interesting to read about all of those
Jacob and his dad, Franklin, have an exceedingly complex relationship. Jacob has peculiar traits, so he can see things that very few people can see, and his father has a difficult time comprehending this. Franklin is convinced that Jacob is all caught up in his grandfather’s nostalgic tales of the island, but little does he know that all those tales are real. It is perceptible that Jacob just wants to have a normal relationship with his dad: “I wanted to tell him. I wanted to explain everything, and for him to tell me he understood and offer some tidbit of parental advice.” (Riggs 268). Jacob and his father come from two different worlds, so it’s difficult for them to connect ☺ (Figurative language). Furthermore, Jacob’s parents presume he
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1807-1882) defined, what is considered today, the true Romantic hero. He associated the Romantic hero with unique characteristics. These characteristics were not found in any other type of hero. In his poem “A Psalm of Life”, Longfellow defined a Romantic hero is while the protagonist in his poem “Excelsior” gives an example of a Romantic hero. According to Longfellow the Romantic hero must be a nonconformist, a man of action, must act in the present, and above all contribute to society.
American Romanticism illustrates the first purely American literary movement that began alongside the beginning of a new nation. American Romanticism appeared in response to the rationalists, such as Ben Franklin, which the American Romantics believed to be too single-minded and not as expressive. Therefore, this literary movement turned away from the corruption of cities and the physical world and focused on nature and imagination. Washington Irving, in his stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”, displays characteristics of American Romanticism and creates American Romantic heroes.