Longfellow, Whitman, Wheatley: Whatever Happened to Patriotic Poems?

In a collection of stories, letters, poems, and speeches, I happened across “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It immediately brought a smile, evoking a memory of class memorization from elementary school, which occurred longer ago than I care to think. I can hear myself and my fellow fifth graders reciting in unison, some of us (overachiever Mary Ellen comes to mind) reciting louder to show mastery of the poem, while a few others mumbled to disguise what they hadn’t learned. I was somewhere in the middle but leaning in the direction of Mary Ellen’s loudness. 

After I reread the poem, remembering some of the stanzas, I checked back with a Tweetspeak Poetry post from last year, which took a look at “America’s most patriotic poem.” The Atlanticpublished Longfellow’s poem in January 1861, long after Revere’s famous ride (although much about that ride remains in historical dispute today). And then I went looking for what was happening when Longfellow wrote and published that poem.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Photograph: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1860, about the time he wrote “Paul Revere’s Ride.”

Our Best-Known Patriotic Poem: Longfellow Visits a Church

On April 5, 1860, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) climbed the stairs of the tower at Old North Church in Boston. The view had changed considerably in the 85 years since the start of the American Revolution – more and taller buildings, countryside and woods swallowed up by development, and certainly more people on the streets below and nearby.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

But Longfellow thought back to April 18, 1775, and the tense and desperate times the colonials were living and shaping. And like any good poet, he considered those times, and his view from the church tower, and a poem began to form. He began writing it the very next day.

“Paul Revere’s Ride” was published in The Atlantic Monthly in January, 1861, and since then has passed into folklore and American legend. For more than a century after, American schoolchildren memorized the poem, individually and as a classroom exercise (I can speak to the reality of both individual memorization and classroom recitation, often in groups).

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Illustration: Title page of "Tales of a Wayside Inn," published in 1863, which included "Paul Revere's Ride." The poem had been published two years earlier in The Atlantic Monthly.