Longfellow wrote many lyric poems known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend. He has been criticized, however, for imitating European styles and writing specifically for the masses.

Also experimented with many forms, including hexameter and free verse. Longfellow often used didacticism in his poetry, though he focused on it less in his later years. Much of his poetry imparts cultural and moral values, particularly focused on promoting life as being more than material pursuits. Longfellow also often used allegory in his work.

His published poetry shows great versatility, using anapestic and trochaic forms, blank verse, heroic couplets, ballads and sonnets. Much of his work is recognized for its melody-like musicality. As he says, "what a writer asks of his reader is not so much to like as to listen".

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  was probably the most influential American poet of the 19th Century. Possibly his 2 most famous poems are `Paul Revere`s Ride` and `The Song of Hiawatha`. His works are still regularly anthologised after nearly a century and a half.Considered by many to be the most popular American poet of the 19th century, a storyteller, whose works are still cited - or parodied. Longfellow`s works ranged from sentimental pieces such as `The Village Blacksmith` to translations of Dante. Among his most interesting works are Evangeline (1847), a narrative poem of the former French colony of Acadia, echoing such epics as Homer`s Odyssey, and the song of Hiawatha (1855), especially noted for its sing-song meter and shamanistic rhythm. Longfellow is considered the first professional American poet. A number of his phrases, such as "ships that pass in the night", "the patter of little feet", and "I shot an arrow into the air", have become a common property. "At the door on summer evenings, 

Sat the little Hiawatha; 

Heard the whispering of the pine-trees, 

Sounds of music, words of wonder (...)" 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine. His father, Stephen Longfellow, was a Portland lawyer and congressman, and mother, Zilpah, was the daughter of General Peleg Wadsworth and a descendant of John Alden of the `Mayflower`. Longfellow was fond of reading - Washington Irving`s Sketch-Book which was his favorite and at thirteen he wrote his first poem, `The Battle of Lovell`s Pond,` which appeared in Portland Gazette. Among Longfellow`s classmates at Bowdoin College was Nathaniel Hawthorne, whom he helped later reviewing warmly his Twice-Told Tales. Before leaving the college, Longfellow had planned to become a writer, and wrote to his father: "The fact is, I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature; my whole soul burns most ardently for it, and every earthly thought centers in it..." 

Longfellow`s translation of Horace earned him a scholarship for further studies. After graduating in 1825 he traveled in Italy, France and Spain from 1826 to 1829, and returned to the United States to work as a professor and librarian in Bodwoin. He translated for his students in French grammar, and edited a collection of French proverbs and a small Spanish reader. In 1831 he married Mart Storer Potter, and travelled  with her on another journey to Europe, where he studied Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and the Dutch language and literature. On this trip he fell under the influence of German Romanticism. Longfellow`s wife died at Rotterdam in 1835. Three years later he wrote of her the touching poem, `Footsteps of Angels.` In 1839 he published the romantic novel Hyperion and a collection of poems Voice of the Night, which became very popular, but was sharply criticized by Edgar Allan Poe. In 1840 he wrote `The Skeleton in Armor` and The Spanish Student, a drama in five acts. Longfellow went to Europe for the third time in 1842. He wrote several poems on slavery, publishing them in a pamphlet upon his return. 

In 1836 Longfellow began teaching in Harvard, taking lodgings at the historic Craigie House, where General Washington and his wife had lived. He dreamed there that J.W. Goethe might come to Cambridge, and duly wrote Hiawatha.  Longfellow was married twice - after the death of his first wife he married in 1843, Frances Appleton, the daughter of a prominent Boston merchant, the Mary Ashburton of Hyperion. He resigned from his post in 1854 and published next year his best-know narrative poem, The Song of Hiawatha, which gained immediate success. Frances died tragically in 1861 by burning - her dress caught fire from a lighted match. Longfellow settled in Cambridge, where he remained for the rest of his life, although he spent summers at his home at Nahant. In 1868 Longfellow made his last visit to Europe with his three daughters. He spent two days with the English poet Alfred Tennyson in the Isle of Wright. Queen Victoria, who was his great admirer, invited him to tea. In Rome he saw Liszt, who set to music the introduction to The Golden Legend (1851).

Longfellow`s later poetry reflects his interest in establishing an American mythology. Among his other works are The courtship of Miles Standish (1858), Tales of a wayside Inn(1863), translation of Dante´s The Divine Comedy (1865-67) and Christus-A Mystery(1872), a trilogy dealing with Christianity from its beginnings, which was intended to be Longfellow`s masterpiece. The poet`s 70th birthday in 1877 was celebrated around the country. Longfellow died in Cambridge on March 24, 1882. In London his marble image is seen in Westminster Abbey, in the Poet`s Corner. 

For further reading: Henry Wadsworth Longellow: America`s Beloved Poet by Bonnie L. Lukes (1998); Longfellow: His Life and Work by Newton Arvin (1977); Longfellow and Scandinavia by Andrew Hilen (1970); Young Longfellow by L.R. Thompson (1938) - See also: Elias Lönnrot, Ivan Bunin - Museums: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow`s House, 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Longfellow`s Wayside Inn, off route 20, Sudbury, Concord - Note: Longfellow`s brother Samuel Longfellow (1819-1892), clergyman and poet, had close contacts with Transcendentalist movement. He published religious lyrics, articles, and essays. 

`The Three Silences of Molinos` 

Three Silences there are: the first of speech, 

The second of desire, the third of thought; 

This is the lore of a Spanish monk, distraught 

With dreams and visions, was the first to teach. 

These Silences, commingling each with each, 

Made up the perfect Silence that he sought 

And prayed for, and wherein at times he caught 

Mysterious sounds from realms beyond our reach. 

O thou, whose daily life anticipates 

The life to come, and in whose thought and word 

The spiritual world preponderates, 

Hermit of Amesbury, thou too hast heard 

Voices and melodies from beyond the gates, 

And speakest only when thy soul is stirred!

(to John Greenleaf Whittier)