EDWARD EVERETT HALE, JR., PH.D. PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND LOGIC IN UNION COLLEGE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY B HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 1990 Press of J. J. Little & Co. INTRODUCTION TO EVANGELINE. THE MAN AND THE POEM. I. LONGFELLOW AS A POET. a. Biographical Note. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW was born in Portland, Me., February 27, 1807. He passed his earlier days in that seaport town, and at the age of fourteen went to Bowdoin College. As he neared the end of his college course, he desired more and more to devote himself to literature as a profession. Very fortunately, just about the time of his graduation, a professorship of modern languages was established at Bowdoin. To this position he was appointed, but first he took some years' leave of absence to travel abroad and fit himself more completely for his work. The years 1826-1829 he spent in Europe studying literature and the languages in the chief Continental nations. From 1829 to 1835 he remained at Bowdoin; in the latter year he was called to Harvard College as professor of modern languages. Again he went abroad before beginning his work, and spent some further time in study. In 1836 he took up his duties at Harvard. He lived the rest of his life in Cambridge, devoted to his college work and to literature. He had early shown that he was to become a poet, a man of letters, as well as a scholar. In 1833 he published a book written partly during his travels, called "Outre Mer" (Beyond the Sea), a book not unlike Irving's "Sketch-Book" (1820), but devoted to France and Germany. In 1839, after his second journey, he published "Hyperion," a book full of the spirit of Germany and |