亨利·沃兹沃思·朗费罗传记

诗人的传记

亨利·沃兹沃斯-朗费罗是19世纪美国文化生活中的重要人物。他出生于1807年，到19世纪50年代已成为全国文坛人物，1882年去世时已是举世闻名的名人。亨利的祖父法勒·沃兹沃斯(1748-1829)是独立战争时期的一位将军，后来在美国国会任职七届。他们在波特兰的家是1785年至1785年为法勒建造的。神父斯蒂芬·朗费罗(Stephen Longfellow, 1776-1849)是一名律师和立法者，他帮助建立了许多缅因州早期的文化机构，包括缅因州历史学会(1822年)。亨利的母亲和早期的鼓吹者是齐尔帕·沃兹沃思·朗费罗(1778-1851)，她是普利茅斯的约翰和普里西拉·奥尔登的直系后裔，是一位学识渊博、机智、信仰自由的女性。朗费罗就读于缅因州不伦瑞克的鲍登学院，在那里他遇到了他一生的朋友和文学同事纳撒尼尔·霍桑。1825年毕业后，他在欧洲游历和学习了三年，在鲍登学院担任现代语言教授——当时这是一个相对较新的领域。1834年，他出版了6本外语教科书，终于在哈佛大学获得了一个类似的职位，开始了他与剑桥市的长期合作。朗费罗是一位忠诚的丈夫和父亲，对家庭的乐趣有着强烈的感情。但他的婚姻都以悲伤和悲剧告终——第一次是与波特兰的玛丽·波特(Mary Potter)结婚，后者于1835年去世; the second to Fanny Appleton — the great love of his life and the mother of his six children — who died of burns from a terrible accident in 1861. A deep nostalgia for his life with Fanny colored the rest of Longfellow's life. Longfellow published his first poem at age thirteen in the Portland Evening Gazette — a precocious sign of an astounding literary career as editor, anthologist, translator, playwright, novelist, and, above all, poet. His many published works sold in phenomenal numbers and multiple editions. Most important are Ballads and Other Poems (1841), Poems on Slavery (1844), Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863), his translation of Dante's Divine Comedy (1867), and Keramos (1878). One of Longfellow's favorite metaphors is the backward glance. People in the present look back into their distant pasts and make a discovery. What had once been history — political, conflicted, sad, and bloody — could now be seen as imaginative myth: ordered, noble, and a source of strength. Longfellow wrote for a young nation ready to make this backward glance. The Indian, the Puritan, the Acadian had all, seemingly, sacrificed their identities on America's stage. In return they would become our originating legends. It was Longfellow's genius and unique opportunity that supplied his country with its mythic past. He did so in a supple lucid verse: moody, melodic, and filled with moral tenderness. For this he was loved.