Children's Own Longfellow

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This handsome volume contains eight of the most popular of Longfellow's poems, including "The Wreck of the Hesperus," "The Village Blacksmith," "Paul Revere's Ride," and excerpts from "The Song of Hiawatha."This title has been selected as a Common Core Text Exemplar (Grades 6-8, Poetry)

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, Childrens

104 pages, Hardcover

First published September 9, 1908

About the author

Extremely popular works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet, in the United States in his lifetime, include The Song of Hiawatha in 1855 and a translation from 1865 to 1867 of Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow educated. His originally wrote the "Paul Revere's Ride" and "Evangeline." From New England, he first completed work of the fireside.

Bowdoin College graduated Longefellow, who served as a professor, afterward studied in Europe, and later moved at Harvard. After a miscarriage, Mary Potter Longfellow, his first wife, died in 1835. He first collected Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841).

From teaching, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow retired in 1854 to focus on his writing in the headquarters of of George Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the Revolutionary War for the remainder.

Dress of Frances Appleton Longfellow, his second wife, caught fire; she then sustained burns and afterward died in 1861. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing and focused on from foreign languages.

Longfellow wrote musicality of many known lyrics and often presented stories of mythology and legend. He succeeded most overseas of his day. He imitated European styles and wrote too sentimentally for critics.

Reviews

[Katja Labonté · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars & 5/10 hearts. I love Longfellow’s poetry, and this one has a couple my favourites of his works. I absolutely love Evangeline. And I was so excited when I found out that actually it is a longer poem and this book doesn’t contain the whole of it! The Wreck of the Hesperus is really sad, and it irks me that the skipper was too confident and proud and so lost all. The Village Blacksmith is one of my very favourite poems. Hiawatha’s Sailing & Hiawatha’s Fishing are really nice, and so is The Building of the Ship. The Castle-Builder is very sweet; Paul Revere’s Ride is simply pure classic; and The Building of the Long Serpent is fun to read. :)

A Favourite Quote: “Toiling,—rejoicing,—sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close;
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose.”

A Favourite Beautiful Quote: “Long ago,
In the deer-haunted forests of Maine,
When upon mountain and plain
Lay the snow,
They fell,—those lordly pines!
Those grand, majestic pines!
’Mid shouts and cheers
The jaded steers,
Panting beneath the goad,
Dragged down the weary, winding road
Those captive kings so straight and tall,
To be shorn of their streaming hair,
And naked and bare,
To feel the stress and the strain
Of the wind and the reeling main,
Whose roar
Would remind them forevermore
Of their native forests they should not see again.”

[Jane Dugger · Rating 3 out of 5]

As my first foray into a book of poetry it was more enjoyable than I expected it to be. I read them a loud to myself and think that may be the key for reading more poems.

Most favored: The Wreck of the Hesperus, The Village Blacksmith, Evangeline & The Building of the Long Serpent

Least favored: The Song of Hiawatha & Paul Revere's Ride (surprisingly enough the only two I recognized)

[Rosie Gearhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

We love Longfellow! This particular book is a good intro to his poetry, especially for children/teens.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

VOICES OF THE NIGHT:
A Psalm of Life 4.5⭐
The Light of Stars 3⭐
Flowers 3⭐

BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS:
An April Day 3.5⭐
Woods In Winter 3⭐
The Skeleton In Armor 5⭐
The Wreck of the Hesperus 5⭐
The Village Blacksmith 5⭐
It is not Always May 3.5⭐
To the River Charles 3.5⭐
Maidenhood 3.25⭐
Excelsior 4.5⭐
The Slave's Dream 5⭐
The Slave in the Dismal Swamp 4⭐

Serenade, From "The Spanish Student" 3.25⭐
"Serenade" is a poem from Longfellow's play titled "The Spanish Student". The poem takes place while Preciosa is asleep in her chamber before Victorian enters the scene by the balcony. The two are in love.

THE BELFRY OF BRUGES, AND OTHER POEMS:
Carillon 4⭐
The Belfry of Bruges 4⭐
The Arsenal at Springfield 3⭐
The Norman Baron 3.25⭐
Rain in Summer 3⭐
The Bridge 4⭐
The Day is Done 5⭐
To the Driving Cloud 4⭐
Walter Von Der Vogel Weid 4⭐
The Old Clock on the Stairs 5⭐
The Arrow and the Song 5⭐
Curfew 4.5⭐

NARRATIVE POEMS:
Evangeline (Part I) 5⭐
The Song of Hiawatha (Hiawatha's Sailing VII; Hiawatha's Fishing VIII) 5⭐
The Courtship of Miles Standish (The Sailing o£ the Mayflower) 5⭐

THE SEASIDE AND THE FIRESIDE:
The Building of the Ship 3.5⭐
The Secret of the Sea 3.5⭐
Twilight 3⭐
Sir Humphrey Gilbert 3⭐
The Lighthouse 3.5⭐
The Builders 2.5⭐
Gaspar Becerra 3⭐
Pegasus in Pound 3.75⭐

BIRDS OF PASSAGE:
The Phantom Ship 4⭐
The Warden of the Cinque Ports 3.25⭐
The Emperor's Bird's-Nest 3.25⭐
Victor Galbraith 3⭐
My Lost Youth 3.25⭐
The Ropewalk 4⭐
The Discoverer of the North Cape 3.5⭐
The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz 3.5⭐
Daybreak 3.25⭐
Sandalphon 3.75⭐
The Children's Hour 5⭐
Enceladus3⭐
The Cumberland 3⭐
Snow-Flakes 3⭐
A Day of Sunshine 3.5⭐
Something Left Undone 3.25⭐
Christmas Bells 5⭐
The Castle-Builder 4.5⭐
The Brook and the Wave 3.25⭐
The Old Bridge at Florence 3.25⭐
Travels by the Fireside 5⭐
The Sermon of St. Francis 3⭐
Songo River 3.5⭐
A Dutch Picture 3.5⭐
Castles in Spain 3.5⭐
The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face 4⭐
A Ballad of the French Fleet 3.5⭐
The Leap of Roushan Beg 4.5⭐
The Three Kings 3.5⭐
The White Czar 3⭐
From My Arm-Chair 3⭐
Robert Burns 4⭐
The Windmill 2.5⭐
To The Avon 2.75 ⭐
Mad River 4⭐
Decoration Day 2.5⭐
The Monk Felix, from "The Golden Legend" 4⭐

TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN:
Paul Revere's Ride 5⭐
King Robert of Sicily 4⭐
The Building of the Long Serpent 3⭐
The Bell of Atri 4⭐
The Ballad of Carmilhan 4⭐
The Legend Beautiful 3⭐
Charlemagne 2⭐

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the story. I was disappointed that Mrs. Dove-Lyon played only a cameo role in this story. There is a major surprise that I did not expect but was interesting. The two main characters, Thenie and Spencer, I loved how they interacted with each other and the ending HEA. I liked that previous characters appeared in this story which were great additions. Definitely a story worth reading.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley and are voluntarily leaving a review.

[Lisa H · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot going on....

Maybe a bit too much in a short read? Thenie needs rescuing after ruining herself.
Spencer Wright-Symthe is a Baron, who is a relic hunter. Thenie's cousin Lottie (who seems very cool) brings him to Thenie to rescue her from herself. There's a lot crammed in here.

[Shae · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite two are " The Wreck of the Hesperus" and "Paul Revere's Ride."

[Laurie Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely collection of poetry that we read in our homeschool Rhetoric literature studies.

[Kim Hampton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the illustrations and the poems are definitely classics.

[Kerrific Kerr · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've been reading the Lyon books then this one is a don't miss. Not as spicy as some but a delightful read with an unexpected twist.

[Jessica Mcmillan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great series and great book! Don’t miss this one! If you haven’t read the series before I suggest you get started!

[Felicity · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this in one day. So it is pretty short. It's only 104 pages long. I normally hate poem books. Well, they are OK...but...I guess they just aren't exciting enough. Haha! This one had a couple story/poems in it and one of the stories was a poem but it didn't rhyme and I know some poems don't rhyme but it made it hard to read because they would split up the sentances. I don't know...you would just have to see. But my favorite poem of all was Paul Revere's ride. =)

[Cindi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't completely finished this book yet, but I'm just loving Longfellow's poetry. I remember one poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" from my school days and snippets of others from the Anne of Green Gables movie. They are really, really lovely to read aloud, but some are just tragic!

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just catching up on some poetry that I never read as a kid. Quick and easy.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not having read anything by Longfellow since my school days, I had forgotten what a masterful poet he was.