The Early Poems

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882) was an American poet and educator 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 and was one of the five Fireside Poets. Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, which was then a part of Massachusetts. He studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and later, at Harvard College. Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854, to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a former Revolutionary War headquarters of George Washington.