The Best Works from the

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The Best Works from the Fireside Poets

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
• Oliver Wendell Holmes,
• John Greenleaf Whitter,
• and James Russell Lowell

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Why the name Fireside Poets?

• Until the third decade of the 19th century,
  America had little literature to call its own
• Fireside poets represented a coming of age for
  the young country
• First generation of poets took their name from
  the popularity of their works which were widely
  read as family entertainment (and in the
  schoolroom)
• Four poets chose uniquely
• American settings and
• subjects
• Themes, meter, and
• imagery,
• however, were borrowed
• from English tradition
• Though not innovative, they
• were literary giants of their
• day

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• No other American poet, not even Robert Frost,
  has matched Longfellows popularity at the height
  of his career.
• A bust of Longfellow was placed in the Poets
  Corner of Westminster Abbey (alongside Chaucer,
  Shakespeare, and Milton)
• Longfellow was a classmate of Nathaniel Hawthorne
• He believed his task was to create in memorable
  form a common heritage for Americans and in the
  process to create an audience for poetry

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Happy Birthday, Longfellow!

• Everyone from the common man to heads of state
  read Longfellows poems, just as today we all
  find ourselves watching MTV, CNN, Lost,
  American Idol, and the Super Bowl (Leocha,
  2007).
• Even today, Longfellows phrases are so much a
  part of our vernacular that they roll off our
  tongues with surprising ease The forest
  primeval . . . Ships passing in the night . . .
  Footprints in the sands of time . . . Life is
  real! Life is earnest! (Leocha, 2007).

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The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Lines to consider

• The tide rises, the tide falls,
• The twilight darkens, the curlew calls
• Along the sea-sands damp and brown
• The traveler hastens toward the town,    
• And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Points to consider after you have read the entire
poem How does the poem create an analogy between
the sea and human life?
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Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
    And the tide rises, the tide falls.  
What is personified in the second stanza? How?
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The morning breaks the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveller to the shore,
    And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Thought to consider . . . Time goes on without
the traveler . . .
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Poetic Techniques

• Tides suggest endless repetition, yet
  individual tides do live and die, as people do
• The little waves, with their soft white hands
  personification
• Efface the footprints time erases all signs
  of a persons life
• Last line circular structure that reinforces
  theme of natures continuity

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Questions to Consider

• In this poem, the analogy between the sea and
  human life is developed mostly through details of
  atmosphere and setting. What details of setting
  in the first stanza suggest that this traveler
  is nearing death?
• What do the signs of awakening life in the final
  stanza indicate about Longfellows attitude
  toward death?

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Paul Reveres Ride
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Longfellows Travels and His Poetry

• Sophisticated man travels took him through
  France, Italy, Spain, Germany
• Influence on travel has been monumental in
  regions of America where he sets his poems
• For example, tourism in Boston brought to life
  almost entirely through evocative words of Paul
  Reveres Ride
• Listen my children, and you shall hear
• Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere . . .

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Listen my children and you shall hearOf the
midnight ride of Paul Revere,On the eighteenth
of April, in Seventy-fiveHardly a man is now
aliveWho remembers that famous day and year. He
said to his friend, "If the British marchBy land
or sea from the town to-night,Hang a lantern
aloft in the belfry archOf the North Church
tower as a signal light,--One if by land, and
two if by seaAnd I on the opposite shore will
be,Ready to ride and spread the alarmThrough
every Middlesex village and farm,For the country
folk to be up and to arm."
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You know the rest. In the books you have readHow the British Regulars fired and fled,---How the farmers gave them ball for ball,From behind each fence and farmyard wall,Chasing the redcoats down the lane,Then crossing the fields to emerge againUnder the trees at the turn of the road,And only pausing to fire and load. So through the night rode Paul RevereAnd so through the night went his cry of alarmTo every Middlesex village and farm,---A cry of defiance, and not of fear,A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,And a word that shall echo for evermore!For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,Through all our history, to the last,In the hour of darkness and peril and need,The people will waken and listen to hearThe hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,And the midnight message of Paul Revere.
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The Song of Hiawatha
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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On the Mountains of the Prairie, On the great
Red Pipe-stone Quarry, Gitche Manito, the
mighty, He the Master of Life, descending, On
the red crags of the quarry Stood erect, and
called the nations, Called the tribes of men
together. From his footprints flowed a river,
Leaped into the light of morning, O'er the
precipice plunging downward Gleamed like
Ishkoodah, the comet. And the Spirit, stooping
earthward, With his finger on the meadow Traced
a winding pathway for it, Saying to it, "Run in
this way!"
17
Old Ironsides
Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Story Behind the Poem

• In a battle in the War of 1812, the American
  frigate Constitution routed the British Guerriere
  and suffered so little damage that it became
  known as Old Ironsides. However, in 1830, the
  ship, lying untended in a Boston navy yard, was
  called unseaworthy, and plans were made for its
  demolition. Holmes wrote the following poem as a
  protest against the destruction of the ship.
  First published in the Boston Daily Advertiser,
  it was copied in newspapers and scattered on
  broadsides all over the country. Such
  indignation was aroused that the ship was
  preserved as a national memorial. Holmes was
  then twenty-one, and the poem made him famous
  virtually overnight.

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Lines to Consider

• Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! Long has it
  waved on high, And many an eye has danced to see
  That banner in the sky Beneath it rung the
  battle shout, And burst the cannon's
• roar -- The meteor of the ocean
• air Shall sweep the clouds
• no more.

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Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,Where
knelt the vanquished foe,When winds were
hurrying o'er the flood,And waves were white
below,No more shall feel the victor's tread,Or
know the conquered knee--The harpies of the
shore shall pluckThe eagle of the sea!
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Oh, better that her shattered bulkShould sink
beneath the waveHer thunders shook the mighty
deep,And there should be her graveNail to the
mast her holy flag,Set every threadbare
sail,And give her to the god of storms,The
lightning and the gale!
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Questions to Consider

• Why compare Old Ironsides to a meteor?
• A meteor has a brief, brilliant glory and then
  disappears. The Constitution seemed headed for a
  similar fate.

• Why compare Old Ironsides to an eagle? The
  bald eagle is a symbol for America and suggests
  country and patriotism. Also, it fits the sky
  images.

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More Questions to Consider

• What words and images in the poem connect Old
  Ironsides with something larger and more awesome
  than an ordinary battleship?
• Why did Holmes suggest that the government tear
  her ensign down and give Old Ironsides to the
  god of storms?
• Instead of scrapping the ship, what alternative
  does Holmes propose?

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Where is Old Ironsides today?
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The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
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The Story of the Chambered Nautilus

• The rare and remarkable chambered nautilus has
  long captivated scientists, mathematicians, and
  poets. Reproducing itself in perfect symmetry and
  accuracy, the nautilus depends on each component
  to complement its self-contained system. Yet, it
  remains open-ended for perpetual evolution and
  change.

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Opening lines to consider

• This is the ship of pearl, which, poets
  feign,Sail the unshadowed main,--The venturous
  bark that flingsOn the sweet summer wind its
  purpled wingsIn gulfs enchanted, where the Siren
  sings,And coral reefs lie bare,Where the cold
  sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

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Its webs of living gauze no more unfurlWrecked
is the ship of pearl!And every chambered
cell,Where its dim dreaming life was wont to
dwell,As the frail tenant shaped his growing
shell,Before thee lies revealed,--Its irised
ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
29
Year after year beheld the silent toilThat
spread his lustrous coilStill, as the spiral
grew,He left the past year's dwelling for the
new,Stole with soft step its shining archway
through,Built up its idle door,Stretched in his
last-found home, and knew the old no more.
30
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by
thee,Child of the wandering sea,Cast from her
lap, forlorn!From thy dead lips a clearer note
is bornThan ever Triton blew from wreathed
hornWhile on mine ear it rings,Through the
deep caves of thought I hear a voice that
sings--
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And the closing lines. . .

• Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,As
  the swift seasons roll!Leave thy low-vaulted
  past!Let each new temple, nobler than the
  last,Shut thee from heaven with a dome more
  vast,Till thou at length art free,Leaving thine
  outgrown shell
• by life's unresting sea!

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Questions to Consider

• In what way does this poem seem Emersonian?
• How does the speaker interpret the shells
  heavenly message?
• According to Holmes, exactly how and when does
  the soul become free?

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The First Snowfall
James Russell Lowell
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The First Snowfall   by James Russell Lowell
The snow had begun in the gloaming, And busily
all the night Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white. Every pine and
fir and hemlock Wore ermine too dear for an
earl, And the poorest twig on the elm-tree Was
ridged inch deep with pearl. From sheds
new-roofed with Carrara Came Chanticleer's
muffled crow, The stiff rails were softened to
swan's-down, And still fluttered down the snow.
I stood and watched by the window The
noiseless work of the sky, And the sudden
flurries of snow-birds, Like brown leaves
whirling by.