They included Mayflower Pilgrims Richard Warren, William Brewster, and John and Priscilla Alden through their daughter Elizabeth Pabodie, the first child born in Plymouth Colony. Longfellow was descended from English colonists who settled in New England in the early 1600s. He was named after his mother's brother Henry Wadsworth, a Navy lieutenant who had died three years earlier at the Battle of Tripoli. His mother was descended from Richard Warren, a passenger on the Mayflower. His father was a lawyer, and his maternal grandfather was Peleg Wadsworth, a general in the American Revolutionary War and a Member of Congress. He grew up in what is now known as the Wadsworth-Longfellow House. Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, to Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah (Wadsworth) Longfellow in Portland, Maine, then a district of Massachusetts.

Life and work Early life and education īirthplace of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Portland, Maine, c. He has been criticized for imitating European styles and writing poetry that was too sentimental. He became the most popular American poet of his day and had success overseas. Longfellow wrote many lyric poems known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on translating works from foreign languages. His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns when her dress caught fire. His first wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after a miscarriage. He retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, and he lived the remainder of his life in the Revolutionary War headquarters of George Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). He graduated from Bowdoin College and became a professor there and, later, at Harvard College after studying in Europe. Longfellow was born in Portland, District of Maine, Massachusetts (now Portland, Maine). He was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the fireside poets from New England. His original works include the poems ' Paul Revere's Ride', ' The Song of Hiawatha', and ' Evangeline'. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Febru– March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator.

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