Henry+Wadsworth+Longfellow

==**Henry Wadsworth Longfellow** (February 27, 1807 - March 24, 1882) was an American poet who wrote many poems which are still famous today. He lived for most of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He studied at Bowdoin college and went on to become librarian and the first professor of modern languages there after touring Europe between 1826 and 1829. In 1831, he married Mary Storer Potter who died a few years later in Rotterdam while the couple were traveling. He took up a professorship at Harvard University and later married Frances Appleton, living at Cragie House, overlooking the Charles River. Probably the best loved American poets all over the world is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Many of his lines are as familiar to us as rhymes from Mother Goose or the words of nursery songs learned in early childhood. Like these rhymes and melodies, they remain in the memory and accompany us through life.There are two reasons for the popularity and significance of Longfellow's poetry. First, he had the gift of easy rhyme. He wrote poetry as a bird sings, with natural grace and melody. Read or heard once or twice, his rhyme and meters cling to the mind long after the sense may be forgotten. Though much of his work is categorized as lyric poetry, Longfellow experimented with many forms, including hexameter and free verse. **Without doubt his most famous work was ' Hiawatha'. His poem 'The Wreck of the Hesperus' is often used as a term to describe someone who looks like a complete wreck, however, this saying is not often attributed to the author and this great poem! The immense popularity of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his works developed vast new audiences for poetry in America. Unfortunately, while at the peak of his fame in 1861, his wife died and he was unable to work for several years, and never achieved the greatness of his earlier work. His most notable later published works being completions of work put aside after his wife's death.** ==

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