Longfellow and Whitman: Two of the Greatest Romantic Poets

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born February 20, 1807 in Portland, Maine. He was expected to grow up to be a well respected lawyer like his father. Longfellow graduated from college in 1825 Bowdoin College after attending Portland Academy.  Before starting his writing career he mastered three foreign languages and expanded his knowledge in further studying in Europe. After spending three years in Europe he returned home and fell in love with and married Mary Storer Potter in 1829. Longfellow accepted a professorship at Harvard University in 1834 although he didn’t start teaching until 1837.

 He traveled over to Europe again to educate more people. During this trip his wife died and he dove into poetry to help with his grief. Although he was full of grief Longfellow did meet Frances Appleton in Europe. Not long after they met Longfellow courted her and they were wed in 1843. Longfellow and his new wife moved into what was Craigie House, a wedding present. Longfellow lost his second wife in 1861 in a house fire. Longfellow was heart broken yet again and turned to poetry to help him cope. He translated and wrote many more poems until his death March 24, 1882.

Longfellow’s writing career started with his first published book in 1833. Not long after he published his first book Longfellow published his first volume of poetry called Hyperion. His first volume of poetry was so well accepted his career as a writer was set. In Longfellow’s next volume of poetry, Ballads and Other Poems published in 1842, contained two of his well know narrative poems “The Wreck of the Hesperus” and “The Skeleton in Armor”. In 1845 he published two more volumes of poetry. Throughout Longfellow’s writing career he wrote many epic poems. Epic poems are long poems that tell a story of a hero’s deeds. His two most famous epic poems were Evangeline and Kavanagh. Longfellow’s biggest work was one of his last ones. He wrote it in three parts; part I, The Divine Tragedy; part II, The Golden Legend; and part III, The New England Tragedies. 

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Long Island. Whitman went to school for until 1830 before he went into the printing trade. After his time was up learning the printing trade Whitman founded a newspaper and taught school on Long Island. Whitman moved in to New York City by 1841 where he went into journalism. He went far in journalism editing a few newspapers in New York and writing short stories or poems for the paper.

After he left the newspapers in New York his writing career really took off. Whitman resigned from the newspaper he was working at to start writing poetry. He published his first book in 1855. Whitman got a poor response to his first book but didn’t give up and just kept editing and republishing it. After Whitman’s third book publishing he left the writing world for a while during the Civil War. He worked as a volunteer aide in the hospitals until he got sick. After that he worked as a clerk at the Indian Bureau of the Department of the Interior. During the later part of his life Whitman went back to work on his book until he died on March 26, 1892.

Whitman started his writing career in the newspaper business and then transferred to poetry. He wrote for and edited a few newspapers in New York City before he moved to the south. In the south he worked for the New Orleans Crescent before he resigned to start his poetry career. Whitman wrote a book of poetry called Leaves of Grass which he published in 1855. He didn’t get a great response to the book. Whitman then decided to revise and edit his book again before he published it. The second edition was released in 1856 and also wasn’t well liked by the public. For Whitman’s third publishing (1860) of Leaves of Grass it had over a hundred new poems and groups of poems. The most notable groups in this book were “Children of Adam,” “a gathering of love poems,” and “Calamus.”

Whitman took a few years off during the Civil War. He published Drum-Taps in 1865 and many others that showed how the Civil War affected him. Whitman’s fourth edition of Leaves of Grass changed vastly to his other copies it had many dark poems about death in it. In 1881 Whitman found the perfect arrangement for Leaves of Grass and published it a seventh time. During Whitman’s last year’s he was finally recognized as a great literary figure and his reputation now is still thought of well.

Comparing Longfellow and Whitman

Whitman and Longfellow both had a passion for writing all the time. Whitman and Longfellow both wrote about what how their life was at that time. Whitman wrote about how the Civil War and what he saw during that time. Even after the Civil War you see how the war had changed his thoughts on life. Longfellow’s writings were about how he lost his wife and what he saw when he was in Europe. His writing reflected his despair and grief he felt for losing his wife. He also wrote about how felt about what he saw in Europe like slavery or analyzing students. Both men were great and respected writers although it took Whitman longer to achieve his success.