Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poet

Gender: Male
Citizenship: United States
Born: Feb 27, 1807
Died: Mar 24, 1882

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy and was one of the five Fireside Poets.

Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, which was then a part of Massachusetts. He studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at Harvard College. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night and Ballads and Other Poems. Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a former headquarters of George Washington. His first wife Mary Potter died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife Frances Appleton died in 1861 after sustaining burns when her dress caught fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on his translation. He died in 1882.

Longfellow wrote predominantly lyric poems, known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend.

If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. history

Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody. great & success

When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music. music

Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad. sad

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books. education, learning & love

Resolve and thou art free. art

Intelligence and courtesy not always are combined Often in a wooden house a golden room we find. intelligence

The counterfeit and counterpart of Nature is reproduced in art. art & nature

Music is the universal language of mankind. music

People demand freedom only when they have no power. freedom & power

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain. best & nature

The strength of criticism lies in the weakness of the thing criticized. strength

Men of genius are often dull and inert in society as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone. society

It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong. time

A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books. learning

The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service. dreams

However things may seem, no evil thing is success and no good thing is failure. failure & success

It is difficult to know at what moment love begins it is less difficult to know that it has begun. love

All things must change to something new, to something strange. change

Thought takes man out of servitude, into freedom. freedom

Whenever nature leaves a hole in a person's mind, she generally plasters it over with a thick coat of self-conceit. nature

For his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every art. art & work

Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time. great, men & time

Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what the world calls illusions. trust

Each morning sees some task begun, each evening sees it close Something attempted, something done, has earned a night's repose. morning

There is no grief like the grief that does not speak. sympathy