Editing Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (section)

===Style===
[[File:Henry W Longfellow with signature-crop.jpg|thumb|right|Longfellow circa 1850s]]
Much of Longfellow's work is categorized as [[lyric poetry]], but he experimented with many forms, including [[hexameter]] and [[free verse]].<ref>{{harvp|Arvin|1963|p=182|ps=.}}</ref> His published poetry shows great versatility, using [[anapest]]ic and [[trochee|trochaic]] forms, [[blank verse]], [[heroic couplet]]s, [[ballad]]s, and [[sonnet]]s.<ref>{{harvp|Williams|1964|p=130|ps=.}}</ref> Typically, he would carefully consider the subject of his poetic ideas for a long time before deciding on the right metrical form for it.<ref>{{harvp|Williams|1964|p=156|ps=.}}</ref> Much of his work is recognized for its melodious musicality.<ref>{{harvp|Brooks|1952|p=174|ps=.}}</ref> As he says, "what a writer asks of his reader is not so much to ''like'' as to ''listen''".<ref>{{harvp|Wagenknecht|1966|p=145|ps=.}}</ref>

As a very private man, Longfellow did not often add autobiographical elements to his poetry. Two notable exceptions are dedicated to the death of members of his family. "Resignation" was written as a response to the death of his daughter Fanny in 1848; it does not use first-person pronouns and is instead a generalized poem of mourning.<ref name=Irmscher46>{{harvp|Irmscher|2006|p=46|ps=.}}</ref> The death of his second wife Frances, as biographer Charles Calhoun wrote, deeply affected Longfellow personally but "seemed not to touch his poetry, at least directly".<ref>{{harvp|Calhoun|2004|p=229|ps=.}}</ref> His memorial poem to her was the sonnet "The Cross of Snow" and was not published in his lifetime.<ref name=Irmscher46/>

Longfellow often used [[didacticism]] in his poetry, but he focused on it less in his later years.<ref>{{harvp|Arvin|1963|p=183|ps=.}}</ref> Much of his poetry imparts cultural and moral values, particularly focused on life being more than material pursuits.<ref>{{cite book |last= Howe |first= Daniel Walker |title= What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 |location= Oxford |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 2007 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/whathathgodwroug00howe/page/630 630–631] |isbn= 978-0195078947 |url= https://archive.org/details/whathathgodwroug00howe/page/630 }}</ref> He often used [[allegory]] in his work. In "Nature", for example, death is depicted as bedtime for a cranky child.<ref>{{cite book |last= Loving |first= Jerome |title= Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself |url= https://archive.org/details/waltwhitmansongo00lovi |url-access= registration |publisher= University of California Press |year= 1999 |page=[https://archive.org/details/waltwhitmansongo00lovi/page/52 52] |isbn= 978-0520226876}}</ref> Many of the [[metaphor]]s that he used in his poetry came from legends, mythology, and literature.<ref>{{harvp|Arvin|1963|p=186|ps=.}}</ref> He was inspired, for example, by [[Norse mythology]] for "[[The Skeleton in Armor]]" and by Finnish legends for ''[[The Song of Hiawatha]]''.<ref>{{harvp|Brooks|1952|pp=175–176|ps=.}}</ref>

Longfellow rarely wrote on current subjects and seemed detached from contemporary American concerns.<ref name=Arvin321>{{harvp|Arvin|1963|p=321|ps=.}}</ref> Even so, he called for the development of high quality American literature, as did many others during this period. In ''[[Kavanagh (novel)|Kavanagh]]'', a character says:

<blockquote>We want a national literature commensurate with our mountains and rivers ... We want a national epic that shall correspond to the size of the country ... We want a national drama in which scope shall be given to our gigantic ideas and to the unparalleled activity of our people ... In a word, we want a national literature altogether shaggy and unshorn, that shall shake the earth, like a herd of buffaloes thundering over the prairies.<ref>{{cite book |last= Lewis |first= R. W. B. |title= The American Adam: Innocence, Tragedy, and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century |url= https://archive.org/details/americanadam030355mbp |location=Chicago |publisher= The University of Chicago Press |year= 1955 |page= [https://archive.org/details/americanadam030355mbp/page/n224 79]}}</ref></blockquote>

He was important as a translator; his translation of Dante became a required possession for those who wanted to be a part of high culture.<ref>{{harvp|Calhoun|2004|p=237|ps=.}}</ref> He encouraged and supported other translators, as well. In 1845, he published ''The Poets and Poetry of Europe'', an 800-page compilation of translations made by other writers, including many by his friend and colleague [[Cornelius Conway Felton]]. Longfellow intended the anthology "to bring together, into a compact and convenient form, as large an amount as possible of those English translations which are scattered through many volumes, and are not accessible to the general reader".<ref>{{harvp|Irmscher|2006|p=231|ps=.}}</ref> In honor of his role with translations, Harvard established the Longfellow Institute in 1994, dedicated to literature written in the United States in languages other than English.<ref>{{harvp|Irmscher|2006|p=21|ps=.}}</ref>

In 1874, Longfellow oversaw a 31-volume anthology called ''Poems of Places'' which collected poems representing several geographical locations, including European, Asian, and Arabian countries.<ref name=Calhoun242>{{harvp|Calhoun|2004|p=242|ps=.}}</ref> Emerson was disappointed and reportedly told Longfellow: "The world is expecting better things of you than this ... You are wasting time that should be bestowed upon original production".<ref>{{harvp|Irmscher|2006|p=200|ps=.}}</ref> In preparing the volume, Longfellow hired [[Katherine Sherwood Bonner McDowell|Katherine Sherwood Bonner]] as an [[amanuensis]].<ref>{{harvp|Wagenknecht|1966|p=185|ps=.}}</ref>