( ) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow America's Uncrowned Poet Laureate

 the most popular American poet of the 19th century

 The first American to translate Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy  One of the five members of the group known as the Fireside Poets

Contents  I. Life, Education and Career  II. Influence  III. Theme and Style  IV. Creative Characteristics  V. Major works

 A bust placed in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey after his death  The only American to be afforded this honour

II. Influence  the most popular & influential American poet of the 19 th century

 influenced the poetic taste of generations of readers throughout the English- speaking world  criticized for imitating European styles

 equally successful in lyric and narrative poetry  during his later years became a master of the sonnet

III. Themes  familiar & traditional:  family  children  idealized love and friendship

American Themes  Longfellow was among the first of American writers to use native themes:  the American scene and landscape  the American Indian (“Song of Hiawatha [haiə'w ɔ θə]”)  American history and tradition

 At the beginning of the 19th century, America people had spent their years and their energies in carving a habitation out of the wilderness and in fighting for independence.

 Literature, art, and music came mainly from Europe and especially from England.  Nothing was considered worthy of attention unless it came from Europe.

IV. Style  lyric poems  musicality  didacticism  gentleness and sweetness  presenting stories of mythology & legend

 traditional poetic techniques:  regular meters and feet  regular rhyming scheme  traditional symbols and metaphors

 In his poems, there is  a joyousness  a spirit of optimism & faith in the goodness of life

 He valued spontaneity and simplicity.  He believed that the purpose of the imagination was  not to devise what didn’t existence  but rather to perceive what really exists, not creation but insight.

V. V. Characteristics  His popular poems strongly reflected the optimistic sentiment and the love of the humanitarian spirit of the people.

 He stressed imagination.  His work was musical, mildly romantic, high- minded, and flavored with sentimental preachment.

V. Major works  Two major kinds:  his great ballads  his thoughtful lyrics  The Song of Hiawatha (1855)  The Divine Tragedy (1871)

 Voices of the Night  « 夜吟 », his first collection of poems  Ballads and Other Poems  « 歌谣及其它 »  Evangeline  « 伊凡吉林 »

The Rainy Day The day is cold,and dark,and dreary; 天冷、阴暗、沉闷； It rains,and the wind is never weary; 下着雨，风也刮个不停； The vine still clings to the moldering wall, 藤还攀附着颓垣残壁， But at every gust the dead leaves fall, 每来一阵狂风，枯叶坠落纷纷， And the day is dark and dreary. 天真是阴暗而沉闷。

My life is cold and dark and dreary; 我的生活寒冷、阴郁、沉闷； It rains and the wind is never weary; 下着雨，风也刮个不停； My though still cling to the moldering past, 我的思想还纠缠着消逝的往事， But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast, 大风里，我的青春希望相继熄灭， And the days are dark and dreary. 天真是阴暗而沉闷

Be still,sad heart!And cease repining; 安静吧，忧伤的心！别再悔恨； Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; 乌云后面太阳依然辉煌灿烂； Thy fate is the common fate of all, 你命运和大家的一样， Into each life some rain must fall, 每个人一生都得逢上阴雨， Some days must be dark and dreary. 有些日子必然阴暗而沉闷。

The Song of Hiawatha 《海华沙 之歌》

Contents  1.  1. introduction  2.  2. The form  3.  3. The meter  4.  4. The source  5.  5. The Theme

1. 1. Biographical Information  Longfellow’s most popular and most recognized poem  a work of American Romantic literature  the only American epic

 the epic life and death of a magic American Indian

 exploration of Indian lore  a legend of Hiawatha and his lover, Minnehaha

 showed his skill in the use of American subject matter  as a pioneer in the teaching of modern languages, he helped introduce Americans to the literature of Europe.

 In 1854 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow retired from his professor's position at Harvard College so he could focus on his writing.

 In his attempt to transform these “wild and superstitious legends of savage life” into romantic poetry, Longfellow had succeeded, indeed.

 not a representation of Native American oral tradition in:  sentiment  scope  overall conception  the plots of most of the episodes

2. 2. The form  an epic poem  an episodic poem arranged in twenty-three cantos Minnehaha, by Edmonia Lewis

3. 3. The meter  trochaic octameter ( 扬抑格 八音步 )  the same meter as the Finnish folk-epic, The Kalevala

4. 4. The source  the legends of the Ojibway Indians

 The poem was written purposely using the same meter as the Finnish folk-epic, The Kalevala.

 November 26, 1855, only two weeks after the publication of Hiawatha, a bomb hit.  It came in the form of a newspaper article in the Washington National Intelligencer ， Porter prefaced his essay:

 “…‘Hiawatha’ has transferred the entire form, spirit, and many of the most striking incidents of the Finnish epic [Kalevala] to the North American Indians. The resemblance is so close that it cannot be accidental.”

5. 5. Plot summary  The Song presents a legend of Hiawatha and his lover, Minnehaha in 22 chapters (and an Introduction).

 In Chapter I, Hiawatha’s arrival is prophesied by a “mighty” peace-bringing leader named Gitche Manito.