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Four American poets

Chapter 21: CHAPTER II LONGFELLOW’S ANCESTORS
By Sherwin Cody
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About This Book

Aimed at young readers, this compact collection presents four readable biographical sketches of notable poets, following childhood influences, schooling, early experiments in verse, and the circumstances behind key works. Each section pairs narrative anecdotes with explanations of themes such as nature, moral conviction, and public engagement, and includes episodes about professional life, honors, and later years. Organized into short chapters that highlight formative scenes, poetic methods, and memorable incidents, the book uses plain language and illustrative detail to make poetic craft and imagery accessible while encouraging appreciation of differing temperaments and literary approaches.

CHAPTER II
LONGFELLOW’S ANCESTORS

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow belonged to a good old New England family. His father was a lawyer in Portland, Maine; his grandfather had been a schoolmaster; and his great-grandfather had been a blacksmith.

The Longfellows were most of them tall, strong men, who had been soldiers, sailors and the like, and none of them had shown the slightest talent for poetry. But Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was small and delicate, though he always stood very erect and was a finely formed man.

His grandfather on his mother’s side was General Peleg Wadsworth, who was once captured by the British and came near being shipped off to England; but he escaped and joined his wife and family as they were going to Boston. The poet also had an uncle Henry (for whom he was named), who had been a lieutenant with Commodore Preble and was killed at Tripoli a short time before his namesake was born. Another uncle was a second lieutenant on the frigate Constitution when it captured the British ship Guerrière in 1812.

On his mother’s side, Longfellow could trace his origin straight back to John Alden and Priscilla Mullens, who came over in the Mayflower, and whom he has made immortal in his poem of “The Courtship of Miles Standish.”

In short, Longfellow belonged to quite an aristocratic family, as New England aristocracy goes, and it was a fairly wealthy family also. His father was once a member of Congress, and afterward was chosen to make the speech welcoming Lafayette when he visited Portland in 1825.

The house where Longfellow was born is still standing and is well known to the children of Portland. In the old days it was in the fashionable part of the town, facing the ocean beach. But now land has been filled in for a long distance out into the ocean, and on this new land stand the engine-house and tracks of the Grand Trunk railway. So the house is now in a very poor neighborhood.

One day a teacher in a Portland school asked her pupils if they knew where Longfellow was born.

“I know,” said a little girl. “In Patsey Connor’s bedroom.”

Many poor people lived in the house, and the room where Longfellow was born was now Patsey Connor’s bedroom; but all the children of Portland knew where it was.