Summary

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (born February 27, 1807 in Portland, died March 24, 1882 in Cambridge) - American poet, representative of Romanticism, called "the king of American poetry"; also philologist, translator and lecturer, author of contemplative lyric poetry and two national epics. The third-largest figure in the US national pantheon after George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, he is widely considered the most popular poet of the 19th century, next to Walt Whitman. A member of the literary group known as the Fireside Poets, which also included John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell and William Cullen Bryant. One of the forerunners of modern philology.

Although Longfellow himself - unlike Walt Whitman or Ralph Waldo Emerson - was a staunch opponent of "national literature" in favor of "universal and transnational literature," his poetry played a significant influence on the formation of identity and folklore in the United States, and he was recognized in Europe as the first great classicist from across the Ocean. At the same time, Longfellow's rather prolific oeuvre had moralistic ambitions, representing to young American society the ideals of generations of pioneer colonizers: the cult of the hearth and family life in accordance with the principles of the Gospel, the need for inner peace and harmony in the midst of the vicissitudes of fate, a deep understanding of nature, and life activism in the spirit of faith, hope and love.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, considered the most significant author of his generation during his lifetime, became the target of harsh criticism after his death, which accused him of lacking originality, being derivative of established European models and writing with the reading masses in mind. Nonetheless, the Portland poet has become permanently inscribed in the traditions of the United States as one of the most important figures; in the process, his life and work have become the source of many American proverbs and the main theme of folk and country songs. It is also associated with the creation of cultural monuments such as the Longfellow Bridge and Longfellow's Wayside Inn, numerous monuments, national mementos and even the names of towns and villages.

Childhood and youth

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807 in Portland, the second of eight children of Stephen and Ziply Longfellow, descendants of old settler families in New England who cultivated Puritan traditions. The Portland of his childhood was an agricultural and trading province, as yet untainted by industrialization or the progress of civilization, which in many areas of Europe, as well as the United States, became the son of the age and the direct cause of the Romantic Revolt. Longfellow's family settlement "full of clean rivers, forests and university centers teeming with rich intellectual life, honoring traditional ideals, conservative in morals, but believing in the progress of man and social institutions" played a significant influence on all his work. In the mature poems of the American Romantic such as Evangeline and The Courtship of Miles Standish, the Arcadian image of New England, remembered in just this way, will return.

At the age of three he independently mastered the alphabet, and at the age of five he began his education at Portland Academy. It was then that he became emotionally and spiritually involved in the history of the War for American Independence, which ended shortly before his birth, and whose echoes still hovered over the young American generation. Although Longfellow is usually considered a poet detached from history in a social and political sense, these early impulses resulted in several poems later in life. One of them was dedicated to Casimir Pulaski (see "Casimir Pulaski in Longfellow's Poetry"). "In the years of his childhood, memories of the hard and heroic struggle must have still been vivid among the elderly He must have even seen veterans of this guerrilla war, and the second and ultimately decisive war with England had already been fought during his lifetime." At the same time, high school sparked in him a deep interest in literature. Daily reading of Homer, Shakespeare and Goethe quickly turned into a passion. Henry also longed to become a writer. He composed his first song at the age of thirteen: the patriotic and pathetic Battle of Lovell's Pond appeared in the November issue of the Portland Gazette. At the time, the boy spoke out loud about his greatest dream - "future dignity in literature."

A year later, he enrolled in university studies at Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine. Fate willed his benchmate to be Nathaniel Hawthorne, a future personality of American literature. The boys shared their literary insights, forging a lasting friendship. One day Hawthorne told Longfellow a story of tragic love from the history of the deportation of Acadians, which he had heard from a village pastor. The story shocked the future "brahmin", permanently etching itself in his memory. Such is the genesis of Evangeline, written more than twenty-five years later, one of the greatest masterpieces of 19th century literature.

In 1825 Longfellow took over the chair of foreign languages, with which he received a large stipend for foreign studies. The future poet set aside this money for his planned scientific and philological travels in Europe, which were to bring him closer to the literature he loved and lay the groundwork for his emerging talent. In the fall of that year - now of age - Henry became a graduate of Bowdoin College.

Travels in Europe. Professorial career

Thanks to the scholarship he received and the favorable opinions of prominent American personalities, Longfellow was able to devote himself to extensive travel in Europe between 1826 and 1829. The main destinations of these voyages were France, Spain, Italy and Germany, where the Portland boy had the chance to study Romance and Germanic philology. His eagerness and pleasant demeanor allowed him to easily infiltrate the cultural circles there. During a couple of months in Madrid, he even met with the fourteen years older triumphant writer of American prose, author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving, then holding the post of American ambassador to Spain.

Upon his return to his homeland, Longfellow - already having some comparative spectrum - for the next six years took up the task of thoroughly revising and organizing from scratch the study of modern languages at Bowdoin College. His work met with general approval. According to Stanislaw Helsztyński, "In doing so, he won the sympathy of the students with his simplicity, sincerity and kind, friendly attitude toward his listeners, from whom he differed little in age. His knowledge of the issues allowed him to arouse enthusiasm for European cultures and literatures in his lectures," all the more so because at the time they were a real enrichment of the existing philological knowledge. He was all the more respected because, being completely absorbed in his lectures, he also found time to popularize his knowledge in the pages of journals.

On September 14, 1831, he married Mary Potter, five years younger than him, a friend still from his childhood days.

Tragic death of first wife - Mary Potter

In 1835, with the publication of his impressions of European travels (a volume of Outre-Mer sketches), Longfellow attracted the attention of educational authorities and earned the deep respect of his colleagues at Harvard University. Later that year, the university offered him the chair of modern languages there on the condition that he first spend a year in Germany and the Scandinavian countries to deepen his knowledge of Scandinavian and German literature. Longfellow happily agreed to the offer. Leaving the United States, he took his wife and two friends with him.

Literary travels in Stockholm, Copenhagen and then Heidelberg proved to have a decisive influence on the further development of Longfellow's literary talent, whose sensibility and imagination saturated to the end with the atmosphere of those places. An example of this is the ballad, Skeleton in Armor, published six years later.

Unfortunately, the stay in Rotterdam brought the future poet one of the most tragic experiences of his life. Only twenty-two years old, Mary died suddenly of premature confinement. Avoiding an overly personal tone, Longfellow rather allusively recorded Mary's death in later poems such as Footsteps of Angels, Mezzo Cammin and Two Angels.

Echoes of the tragedy that befell Longfellow and the memory of Mary Potter will still float in his last major work, Song of Hawaii, already written in the prime of his life.

Forced to complete his journey, he sent the coffin with his wife's body to Cambridge, so that her funeral ceremony could be performed there on home soil, and he himself set off for Germany, this time, however, in a mournful and penitential mood. Having settled in Heidelberg for a few months, he became acquainted with modern idealism, which at first took the name Sturm und Drang, and later - the "romantic school." Despite his despair, he still had the strength to penetrate the cultural life of the country and thus deepen the necessary knowledge. He even attended the famous lectures of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and made personal contacts with German poets and thinkers such as Friedrich Schiller and August Wilhelm Schlegel.

Craige House

In 1836, Longfellow returned to America: he thus took up (as the youngest among the faculty) a research post at Harvard University. Although his beginnings were difficult, he was "received favorably by the young people, who valued his unpretentiousness, directness, friendliness and refined manner of going around." He was given the position of professor at Harvard to hold until 1854.

In 1839, when the despair from the loss of Mary had somewhat eased, Longfellow took his first serious steps to embrace the parnassus. Not very fortuitously, he began with prose: a sentimental, semi-autobiographical novel, Hyperion, was then published. A few months later, however, came Longfellow's literary debut proper: the collection Voices of the Night, which was already surrounded by an uplifting atmosphere of legend from the moment of its publication. The book called for spiritual fortitude, heroism and overcoming resistance from the world, as if in spite of the tragic death of the author's first wife, thus striking at the most precious ideals of the young United States - the ideals of independence.

Traveling in Europe allowed the poet to make further edifying acquaintances, including Ferdinand Freiligrath and Alfred Tennyson. His warmest intimacy, however, was with Charles Dickens. At the same time, his private home in one of Cambridge's most beautiful neighborhoods, originally the quarters of George Washington - the so-called Craige House later made famous throughout the world - became a meeting place for the most prominent minds of Boston circles. "The professor's courteous civility, his impeccable life and his spontaneous friendliness encircled the meetings of Boston friends like Ralph Waldo Emerson or Nathaniel Hawthorne or like Charles Dickens." Frequent guests included: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Sumner, Charles Eliot Norton, James Russell Lowell, several of whom, along with Longfellow, decided to found the Fireside Poets group aiming to revitalize America's literary movement.

In the meantime, he fell in love a second time, even more strongly than before: the chosen one of his heart was Frances Appleton (fondly called by him: "Fanny"), sister of the poet Thomas Gold Appleton. At first it was an unhappy love, as Frances did not reciprocate the poet's feelings, making this clear in letters that have survived to this day. Nonetheless, after seven years of efforts on Longfellow's part, she agreed to form a closer friendship with him, the final result being their nuptials in 1843.

Disputes with Walt Whitman

The marriage to Fanny was a happy one. Henry had six children with her, moreover, the considerable income from the publication of books and his merits in the field of philology allowed him to become completely financially independent. Therefore, he resigned to continue taking up a position as a professor at Harvard and took care of his family. At the same time, with the publication of more and more collections of poems, he gained recognition and readership, which soon earned him the title of the most outstanding poet that America has carried. In quick succession, he became one of the first poets of the New Continent for whom the source of livelihood could be writing alone. In his introductory essay to new translations of Longfellow's poems, Juliusz Zulawski wrote: "...it was this situation - the different assessment of it that resulted from the difference in temperaments - that put the two greatest American poets - Longfellow and Whitman - at opposite poles."

In 1860, the third collection of Walt Whitman's Straws of Grass was published (by a Boston publishing house). The book received a very favorable review from the American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, who vowed to make every effort to implement the young Whitman into the literary elite of the time. Emerson was one of the greatest authorities of the United States of the 19th century, but despite this he failed to introduce Whitman to the famous "Saturday Club." The reason was Longfellow's strong opposition. Thus began a period of disputes between the two poets.

Whitman's poems strongly irritated the "brahmin", who accused them of breaking classical structures too boldly, even calling them disorderly writing. Longfellow was aggravated by the indecent - as he himself used to say: demoralizing - frankness of the individual "blades," especially those whose subject Whitman made matters as sensitive as sexuality or natural instincts. Thus, the American bard stood up not only for long-established literary traditions, but above all for good taste and morality. Whitman, on the other hand, accused Longfellow of a lack of "Americanness", or variously understood literary modernity, duplicity, eclecticism and stylistic regression towards ossified, outdated forms, as well as excessive prudery. For this reason, the quarreling poets gave each other critical publications for several years.

Tragic death of second wife - Fanny Appleton

"Brahmin" led a peaceful, warm life in the bosom of his family - until another life tragedy struck. "Into this environment so happy fell a bolt from the blue on June 9, 1861. The poet's wife, organizing and varnishing with wax and candle the children's heirlooms, started a fire on the ground, which unexpectedly seized her light summer dress, and unhappily stood in a flash of flames. At her scream, the poet rushed in and, seeing what was happening, rushed to her rescue, covering her with a rug to smother the fire. In vain." However, Fanny did not die until the next day, according to biographers: in terrible suffering. The poet, too, suffered severe burns to his hands and face, which later resulted in hypersensitive skin, causing unbearable pain when shaving. For this reason, Longfellow grew a beard, giving him a patriarchal appearance. This misfortune proved to have far-reaching consequences in Longfellow's life. He interrupted his original work to seek relief in the works of the great classics in complete isolation from current events. In many cases, he drew on the anthologies of Alexander Chodzko. "During the raging civil war, in which hundreds of thousands died , the fifty-year-old "brahmin" worked on Dante in his quiet library. His home in Cambridge became a kind of fortress of "unadulterated romanticism", and his only contact with reality outside was his concern for his son as a Civil War participant.

In time, however, the poet returned to his original work. The poem Cross of Snow, which was unpublished during his lifetime, testifies to his temporary breakdown.

Despite the tragic death of his second wife, his poetry did not lose the old call for hope and optimism. Although enriched with a slightly more melancholy tone, their main message was to explore the mystery of death, transience and suffering in the perspective of God's plan of salvation. There were even new juxtapositions: the ebb and flow of the tides, despair and reassurance, death but at the same time birth. Only the old activism and youthful verve, familiar from the heroic cries of the Builders type or the Psalm of Life, have disappeared. They gave way to calmness, inner harmony in the face of misfortunes, and patient endurance of what the vicissitudes of fate give with confidence in the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. In the process, Longfellow's poetry became more contemplative.

Last years of life. Friendship with Walt Whitman

There were still heated arguments between Longfellow and Whitman in the press. Longfellow, however, "was too wise to be stubborn." In 1879, he decided to form an alliance with his opponent. Visits to the half-paralyzed "good gray-haired poet" in Philadelphia turned into a friendship and frequent meetings. The two also managed to convince each other of their, often extremely different, reasons. Despite appearances, Whitman and Longfellow had a lot in common. True, "much divided them, but one thing united them for sure: they were both good people, distinguishing - each in his own way - nobility of heart from meanness, beauty from ugliness, good intentions from bad ones."

The poet's 70th birthday in 1877 became an occasion of national happenstance for the American people. Despite continuing to make numerous voyages around Europe, Longfellow was growing tired of the honors he received, the hardships of travel and his social life. Indeed, in his old age he suffered from peritonitis, which was associated with frequent abdominal pains and the need to take opium. This was also the case on the night of March 23-24, 1882. Already in the morning, however, the poet's death was recorded. The nation was in mourning that day.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is buried in "America's first cemetery garden." - Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Cambridge. At that time, an appreciative essay entitled Death of Longfellow by Walt Whitman appeared in print, beginning: "Longfellow rich in color, graceful forms and themes - in all that makes life beautiful and love subtle - going toe-to-toe with the songsters of Europe on their own ground and writing better and more beautifully than any of them." The author of Sprigs of Grass, as a sign of respect and love, placed two sprigs of ivy on the grave of the "brahmin".

Longfellow's rich literary legacy boils down to a unified worldview system composed of several overarching themes, the most important of which are:

In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's view, the overriding purpose of poetry was to practice conscientiousness and trust in God and to sustain faith in Him - especially in moments of doubt. This was manifested in the visual art of contrasting poetic images, such as a sea storm and a gathering at a feasting table. Longfellow, undoubtedly a traditionalist, at the same time preached the cult of the hearth and family life in accordance with the principles of the Gospel, the need for inner peace and harmony in the midst of the vicissitudes of fate and a deep understanding of nature. The moralistic mission of his poems was confirmed by the simple, clear form, which was already intended to reach the common man. Longfellow was thus the first American poet to be read both in elite salons and in rural homes. Little did Walt Whitman give him the worthy title of "universal poet," bringing beauty to men, women and young people alike, with equally happy results.

The attitude consistently espoused in the "brahmin" poems finds its source in two New Testament passages: "You shall know them by their fruits" and - "Everyone, therefore, who listens to these words of mine and fulfills them, can be compared to a prudent man who built his house on a rock. The rain fell, the streams swelled, the winds broke and struck that house. But he did not collapse, because on the rock he was established" . This is evident in the poet's first poem, legendary since its publication, Psalm of Life, can be seen in the posthumously published In the Harbor, moreover in every other collection by Longfellow, regardless of the date of publication, as if in spite of the tragic events that affected the author in his personal life.

In doing so, Longfellow broke with the Puritan doctrine of original sin as the only truth about man. In his view, the fundamental and most profoundly human trait is the pursuit of goodness and love, given from God from the very beginning of man's creation, which must be "under the hard hammer" during life. For it is not only the intention that is important, but first and foremost its fruits: the good done to fellow human beings and sacrifice. Equally momentous in Longfellow's work is the ever-creative present, opposed to all forms of despair. He put on a pedestal ordinary people, blacksmiths or builders, shining, however, as examples of dedication, devotion to work and nobility. While abandoning rich psychological profiles or even the principles of realism, he proposed rather exemplary, almost hagiographic, models of piety, simplicity, hospitality and spiritual fortitude.

At the same time, Walt Whitman wrote of Longfellow's poetry, "He neither urges nor flogs. His influence is like a good drink or like air. Neither is lukewarm, but always vital, full of flavor, movement and grace. It strikes an excellent mediocrity, does not care for exceptional passions or antics of human nature. He is not revolutionary, does not bring anything forward or new, does not deliver hard blows. On the contrary, his songs soothe and heal, and if they excite, it is a healthy and pleasant excitement. Even his anger is gentle...".

However, among the particularly important monuments of American culture are Longfellow's three classical epics (Evangeline, Song of Hiawatha and The Courtship of Miles Standish), the first two of which gained the status of national epics. At the same time, they were the first works that satisfied the need of the fledgling culture of the United States for great works of literature - equal to the greatest pillars of the old continent, i.e. Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy or the works of William Shakespeare - that could at the same time define the noblest values and national identity of Americans. Two epics, Evangeline and The Courtship of Miles Standish turn to the pioneer history of the United States, including the story of the deportation of the Acadians or the arrival of the sailing ship "Mayflower" to the coast of North America.

One of Longfellow's last major works was a three-part (because it was divided according to the three theological virtues) dramatic poem on the life of Jesus Christ and the famous burning of witches in Salem, Christus. A Mystery. The second was a poetic casket novel considered the most national of the poet's works, Tales from the Wayside Inn. The work became the finest manifestation of Longfellow's outstanding narrator's gift; moreover, it is considered by many in contemporary literary criticism to be the greatest (though not the most popular) literary achievement of the "brahmin" and his most contemporary work. Juliusz Zulawski wrote about this very work: "his romanticism and tenderness for European literature is perhaps most unveiled by Longfellow in Tales from a Roadside Inn. And at the same time we find there the key to understanding the American mentality, in which he too is completely stuck." The most famous passage in the poem is the story of Paul Revere, an American patriot and member of the American Revolution, the great national pride of the United States. "And this is immediately followed by the Student's tale of Sera Federico's falcon from the Arno River. Then a Spanish Jew tells the legend of Rabbi Ben Levi. Then a Sicilian about King Robert. Then a Musician the Scandinavian saga of King Olaf. Then a Theologian tells about Torquemada. And so on. That's the whole Longfellow!"

Traces of foreign literature

Throughout his creative life, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow consciously (though some say it was due to an excess of "scientific" writing or a shortage of talent and writing temperament) leaned toward poetic regression. That is, avoiding any novelty of style and content, he rather perpetuated forms already present in the literature of past millennia, sometimes already considered archaic. Moreover, the ambition of the author of Evangeline was the noble position of an intermediary between the tradition of Europe (the roots of "Americanness") and the ideals of the United States ("Americanness"). In view of this, his entire oeuvre is imbued with patterns already found in European literature: this applies not only to poems set in the climate of medieval legends or sacred monuments of the Renaissance, but also to those that take the 19th-century United States as their time and space. Some of the works of the "brahmin" directly drew patterns from specific works of literary classics.

As complex and multifaceted as Longfellow's life turns out to be the reception of his work itself. It has been a "river topic" for literary criticism of the past two centuries, spawning ever new discussions. Recently, there has even been a monumental monograph on the poet by Charles C. Calhoun, Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life, which is an attempt to refresh as well as to de-emphasize his figure.

During his lifetime, Longfellow's popularity and fame - both in the United States and Europe - were immense; he was considered the first American poet of world renown, and internationally could only be matched by Alfred Tennyson. The readership of "Brahmin" increased even more with the advent of the Victorian era in English literature, an era that particularly valued in him a subdued style of lyrical expression and a melancholy-sentimental mood. Critical voices were few at the time: they belonged primarily to Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe (perhaps the fiercest and most virulent of the "Brahmin" critics) and Margaret Fuller. In all cases, however, the charges against Longfellow's poetry were toned down by an appreciation of the "refined charm" and "predilection for beauty" present in it. It is known that the friend of the "brahmin," Ralph Waldo Emerson, also did not count her among the pinnacles of American poetry. This seems most understandable, given the philosopher's aversion to tradition and desire for worldview revolutions, who wrote: "Why should we not have a poetry based on intuition rather than tradition, or a religion revealed to ourselves rather than a history taken over from our fathers?"

Longfellow's poetic works also gave him considerable fame and recognition among prominent personalities of 19th century history. "When this excerpt was read to Abraham Lincoln, tears stood in the eyes of the brave patriot and he pronounced with emotion: What a great gift is bestowed upon a man, a poet, who knows how to move our hearts so deeply!" Queen Victoria herself expressed her wish to receive the "brahmin" in an audience at Windsor. "In polite conversation with the poet, she was astonished at the great attentiveness of her entourage, who showed a more sincere and profound interest toward Longfellow than during receptions of crowned heads. Her astonishment was further increased when she heard how those present after the poet's departure in conversation with her began to recite Longfellow's most popular works." At the time, he was colloquially referred to as "the brahmin of the United States."

Despite rather reluctant or even sometimes critical opinions about Longfellow's originality and artistic heights, he has always figured as the "king of American poetry." Undoubtedly, he is the most myth-making poet of the United States today, and the one who has made the greatest contribution to native literature; impressive, moreover, was his great educational and didactic-translational plan aimed not only at renewing native literature on the basis of tradition, but also at deepening philological knowledge and culture so that it counts internationally. "I would have to think for a long time if I were asked to name a man who has done more for America and in a more important direction," Walt Whitman wrote. "Brahmin" along with several other members of the Fireside Poets, moreover, gave an unusually rich contribution to school reading material, so in time the group came to be known simply as the Schoolroom Poets. Indeed, Longfellow's message had become so engrained in the atmosphere of school interpretation that it began to be seen as banal and cheap moralizing. The 20th century thus began to treat him with far-reaching leniency, considering him a "poet for children" rather than a serious artist who could provide many important reflections. Others, on the other hand, limited Longfellow's importance to the role of a literary intermediary, a kind of Agamemnon, an author who laid the (admittedly momentous) groundwork for the fledgling culture of the United States, but who was no longer worth bothering with; especially since America had bred truly innovative geniuses like Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe. Whatever the attitude of the younger generations, however, "Longfellow has retained his admiration and love in the hearts of millions of American citizens to this day." Moreover, there is no doubt that "he remains the most popular national poet of the broad masses of the American people."

Longfellow, as a creator himself, directed towards the regression and influence of the classics of European literature, did not make any mark on subsequent generations of poets, and the inspiration of his work was limited only to the Fireside Poets group. Nevertheless, according to contemporary literary critics, Longfellow's style of poetry directly influenced modern prose, including such important writers of the era as: Herman Melville, Joaquin Miller, Jack London and even, for many years, Walt Whitman, who was hostile to the "Brahmin."

As one of the flagship figures of American literature, as well as American folklore, Longfellow has inspired many artists of the folk and country music scene. Among the most famous is the ballad by Canadian group The Band, Acadian Driftwood, the content of which is an expansion of the introduction to Gospel. Similarly, there was a song by Emmylou Harris bearing the title - Evangeline. Neil Diamond also reached out to the poet's work in 1974, recording his album Longfellow Serenade. There are also many significant similarities between Leonard Cohen's song Tower of Song and Longfellow's poem Mezzo Cammin.

The lyrics on Mike Oldfield's Incantations album (the track "Part Two") are taken from chapters XXII and XII (in that order) from the epic "The Song of Hiawatha."

Longfellow's fame reached Poland relatively quickly, as early as the 1950s. Of particular interest at the time were such poems as a kind of American response to Friedrich Schiller's Ode to Joy and Mickiewicz's Ode to Youth - The Psalm of Life, and Excelsior, which is an allegory of consistent persistence in a resolution once made, and which hit the insurrectionary ideals of the second generation of Polish Romantics. From then until the present Longfellow was translated by Adam Asnyk, Antoni Lange, Julian Tuwim, Zygmunt Kubiak and Juliusz Żuławski, among others.

The distinguished poet dedicated a poem to General Casimir Pulaski titled "Hymn Of The Moravian Nuns Of Bethlehem At The Consecration Of Pulaski's Banner" (1854).

Sources

1. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
2. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
3. a b c d e f g Andrzej Kopcewicz i Marta Sienicka: Historia literatury stanów Zjednoczonych w zarysie. Wiek XVII-XIX. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1983, s. 223. ISBN 83-01-04462-4.
4. Stanisław Helsztyński: Wstęp. W: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Pieśń o Hajawacie. Wrocław−Kraków: Zakład Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich, 1960, s. VI.
5. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, [w:] Encyclopædia Britannica [online] [dostęp 2018-07-26]  (ang.).
6. a b c d e f Juliusz Żuławski: Słowo wstępne. W: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Wybór poezji. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1975, s. 10.
7. A Brief Guide to the Fireside Poets. poets.org. [dostęp 2018-07-26]. (ang.).
8. ^ Calhoun (2004), p. 5.
9. ^ Sullivan (1972), p. 180.
10. ^ "Family relationship of Richard Warren and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow via Richard Warren".
11. ^ Arvin (1963), p. 7.
12. ^ Calhoun, 5
13. ^ Arvin, 7
14. ^ N.d.T. Tipo di scuola elementare diffusa in passato nei paesi di lingua anglosassone. Generalmente l'insegnante era una donna e le lezioni si svolgevano presso la sua abitazione.
15. ^ a b c Arvin, 11
16. Phillip McFarland (2004). Grove Press. New York, ed. Hawthorne in Concord. ISBN 0-8021-1776-7.
17. Cándido Pérez Gállego, "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", en su Historia de la literatura norteamericana. Síntesis crítica y temática, Madrid: Taurus, 1988, p. 67.
18. C. Pérez Gállego, op. cit., p. 68.
19. Citado por C. Pérez Gállego, op. cit., p. 69.