Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Collection: Evangeline, The Song of Hiawatha, The Courtship of Miles Standish, Paul Revere’s Ride & Other Tales of a ... Birds of Flight, Poems on Slavery & More

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Twelve poetry collections in one!

In one volume, a collection of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's most important and beloved poetry, ranging from his sweeping epics to shorter poems touching on politics and nature. Included in this Evangeline, subtitled “A Tale of Acadie,” Longfellow's classic epic poem originally published in 1847. Set in the 1750s during the French and Indian War and the Expulsion of the Acadians (a population of ethnically French and French-speaking settlers) from what is now maritime Canada and Maine by the British army, and tells the story of an Acadian girl named Evangeline as she searches for her lost love Gabriel. Evangeline was a sensation after its publication, being easily Longfellow’s most popular work during his lifetime, capturing the spirits of not only the descendants of the Acadian people in Canada and New England but also the larger romantic imagination of the age, with its moving story of lost loves and heartache. The Song of Hiawatha , Longfellow's epic poem that tells the adventures of Hiawatha, an Ojibwe warrior, and the tragedy of his love for Minnehaha, a Dakota woman. Longfellow's poem is based on oral traditions surrounding the mythical figure Manabozho. Though it initially received mixed reviews, it is immediately popular with readers and was quickly recognized as a masterpiece of American literature. English writer George Eliot called The Song of Hiawatha, along with Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 book The Scarlet Letter, the "two most indigenous and masterly productions in American literature." The Courtship of Miles Standish , Longfellow's 1858 epic poem about America's early pilgrim settlers. Set in 1621 amidst a violent conflict between the Plymouth Pilgrims and their Native American neighbors, it tells the story of a love triangle involving real-life historical figures Miles Standish, Priscilla Mullins, and John Alden. When read together with his other great American epic, Evangeline, Longfellow's poem captures the bittersweet quality of the colonization of New England -- at times humorous, at other times dramatic, there is an ever present sense of fear and loss offsetting hope and love. All five volumes of Birds of Passage , Longfellow's beloved series of poems, containing over sixty poems , including such timeless classics as The Children's Hour , Haunted Houses , The Ladder of St. Augustine , My Lost Youth, and the titular Birds of Passage. All three volumes of Tales of a Wayside Inn , Longfellow's collection of dozens of historical tales presented as a series of epic poems presented by various characters gathered at the Sudbury Inn. Included in this volume are among his most famous Paul Revere's Ride , The Saga of King Olaf , Scanderbeg , Charlemagne , King Robert of Sicily , Kambalu , and The Falcon of Ser Federigo . Poems on Slavery , Longfellow's 1843 collection of anti-slavery poems, remembered alongside Uncle Tom's Cabin as among the most significant antebellum anti-slavery works of literature.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882) was an American poet whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. His work remains among some of the most beloved and enduringly influential works of poetry produced by 19th century America.

484 pages, Paperback

Published September 3, 2021

About the author

An extremely popular American poet in his own lifetime, Longfellow's best-known works include The Song of Hiawatha (1855), a translation of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, done in 1864-67, Paul Revere's Ride and Evangeline. He's one of the New England poets now typically referred to as the Fireside Poets.

Longfellow graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825, and after studying in Europe for several years subsequently became Bowdoin's professor of modern languages and librarian. After further study in Europe, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to become professor of modern languages at Harvard in 1836. Meanwhile, Mary Potter Longfellow, his first wife, had died in 1835, following a miscarriage.

His first published collections of poetry were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). In 1854, he retired from teaching to focus on his writing. His second wife, Frances Appleton Longfellow, died in 1861 of burns sustained when her dress caught fire. After her death, for some time Longfellow had difficulty writing original poetry, and focused on translations from foreign languages.

Longfellow wrote lyric poetry noted for its musicality, and often presented stories of mythology and legend. He frequently imitated European poetic styles (and his work was popular in Europe in his day, as well as in the U.S.). As a Romantic poet, he seeks primarily to express and to evoke emotion in his poetry.