Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: The Children's Poet -- And More

Photogaph by
Julia Margaret Cameron
(1815-1879)
in Public Domain

About a year ago, I had the pleasure of reviewing for Sacramento/San Francisco Book Review, Sydelle Pearl's lovely book, Dear Mr. Longfellow, Letters to and from the Childrens Poet.  I was particularly interested in that book (we get to choose from an extensive list) because in school I had learned "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere." At home, my mother had read The Song of Hiawatha, an epic poem, to my brother and me when we were children, and I had never forgotten the tom-tom beat in the lines of Hiawatha.

Pearl's book charmed me. She interspersed bits and pieces of Longfellow's life with the letters children wrote to him and his replies. (You can read the review, now at City Book Review, HERE.) I hadn't thought of him as a "children's poet," but apparently children loved his poems.

Longfellow (February 27, 1807 - March 24, 1882), was a Victorian Era poet and has been considered one of America's greatest poets. "The Children's Hour," a poem written to his three daughters, is still one of the sweetest poems I've ever read, and you can read it HERE. A versatile poet, he also went on to write a translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, published in 1867.

When my husband and I went on a cruise along the St. Lawrence River last October, I had the opportunity to purchase a copy of Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, another epic poem, this one a tragic love story, and perhaps Longfellow's most famous poem. I was intrigued, because the poem is about the historic deportations of Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755-1763, and our cruise actually stopped at two cities in Nova Scotia: Sydney and Halifax. (You can read a little more about the Nova Scotia part of our cruise HERE.)

Coincidentally, one of the women on our cruise was Cajun. Cajuns' ancestors were the Arcadians who were expelled from Arcadia by the British after the French and Indian War, primarily because they wouldn't take an oath of allegiance that might commit them to fighting the French in the future. Some went to Louisiana, some to Texas, some back to France and then Louisiana. Generations later, some families returned to Canada and live there today.

I'm a history buff, and so, after hearing the history and meeting someone with distant ties to the subject matter, of course I had to buy the book.

Evangeline is written in a very different form from either "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" or The Song of Hiawatha. The meter is "dactylic hexameter" or "heroic hexameter", a form used in the Greek epics (think the Iliad) or Latin epics (think Virgil's Aenid), neither of which I have read, because I always found those long masterpieces daunting. I do have to admit that Evangeline is a tough read. For example, compare:

        "Listen, my children, and you shall hear
         The midnight ride of Paul Revere . . ."

         or:

         "By the shores of Gitchee Gumee,
          By the shining Big-Sea-Water . . ."

         to:

          "In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas,
          Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pré
          Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to the eastward . . ."

          Beautiful and haunting writing, yes, but 77 pages of it was taxing at times. Still, it's an extremely moving tale of unforgettable, star-crossed lovers, the way Romeo and Juliet are unforgettable. No daggers or poison, here, only the separation of Gabrielle and Evangeline during the Arcadian expulsion. They are separated when the villagers are all rounded up and loaded onto ships. They are reunited by accident when Evangeline -- who has joined the Sisters of Mercy, after years of searching for him -- finds her beloved Gabrielle in Philiadelphia, a victim in the smallpox epidemic. He dies in her arms, and she dies soon after.

Evangeline is apparently based on a true story: The "Gabrielle" of the poem was based on Louis Areceneaux. "Evangeline" was based on an orphan named Emmaline, whose adoptive family went first to Maryland then to Louisiana.

The particular edition of Evangeline I have is a paperback, published by Nimbus Publishing, You can get a copy of the book HERE.

In the meantime, Longfellow still ranks as one of my favorite American poets.


Do you have favorite poems or poets? Please share one or two. I'm always on the look-out for a good poetic read.

18 comments:

Optimistic Existentialist said...

I think my favorite poet will always be Walt Whitman :)

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

I've only read bits and pieces of Walt Whitman's work. I have the book, Leaves of Grass. I need to peruse it a little more.

Rosi said...

Very interesting post. I don't know this poem nor much of Longfellow's work. I guess I have some reading to do. Thanks.

D.E. Malone said...

Your post prompted me to go looking for a very old book I was given by my mother years ago, handed down from her side of the family. It's titled, A Book of Birthday Gems, with a stanza of one of Longfellow's poems printed on each day of the year. It looks like a diary or a book to keep track of family birthdays and seems to have been printed around 1900 as someone wrote their list of Christmas presents received on one of the back pages! The line on today's page, February 8th, is from Evangeline and reads, 'From the fields of her soul a fragrance celestial ascended - charity, meekness, love and hope, and forgiveness and patience!' Thanks for reminding me I had this charming little book!

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

Hi, Rosi, you've probably read more poems by Longfellow than you think. I'm always surprised when a familiar poetry line I've encountered through the years and remembered turns out to be by one of the famous poets I thought I hadn't read. :-)

Dawn, I'm so glad you found that book. It sounds delightful! What is the the book's title? It would be interesting to research that edition.

D.E. Malone said...

It reads, 'Longfellow Birthday Book' on the inside pages, published by M.A. Donohue & Company in Chicago.

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

Thanks, Dawn!

Denise Covey said...

I loved '...Paul Revere' and 'Hiawatha', amongst others of this poet's works. Thanks for the info. Our illustrious poets had a lot going for them. I never knew children wrote him letters or loved his poems. How gorgeous!

Hope the book is going well!

Denise

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

Hi, Denise, yes, I was surprised to learn he was considered "The Children's Poet." From what I read of him, he seemed like a very warm, kind person, too.

Connie Keller said...

I'd never heard of Evangeline. Sounds lovely!

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

Hi, Connie, I had heard of Evangeline, but I didn't really know what it was about. I am sore of a "hit and miss" reader when it comes to classical writers.

Sandra Cox said...

I love Hiawatha and Paul Revere.

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

Hi, Sandra, thanks for stopping by my blog. Longfellow is an engaging poet of his times (to me, anyway). I enjoyed those two poems, too, and in recent years, many more.

Sandra Cox said...

Hey Elizabeth, Just wanted to say thanks for the follow and comment. See ya soon.

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

My pleasure. Have a great day.

Roger James said...

Don't know if you can help me, but I am looking for a children's poem that my Mother learnt at school in the 1930s and have drawn a blank!

Mattie Matilda sat up in bed.
"I'm going to be naughty today." she said.
....
..".so instead, I think I should,
be terribly terribly good"

I would be grateful for any help.

Thanks

Roger Britton

Roger James said...

Don't know if you can help me, but I am looking for a children's poem that my Mother learnt at school in the 1930s and have drawn a blank!

Mattie Matilda sat up in bed.
"I'm going to be naughty today." she said.
....
..".so instead, I think I should,
be terribly terribly good"

I would be grateful for any help.

Thanks

Roger Britton

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

Hello, Roger, I'm afraid I've never read that poem or heard of it. Maybe you can google the first two lines and see what pops up. Good luck.