The Courtship of Miles Standish
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was an American poet. Born in Portland, Maine, Longfellow excelled in reading and writing from a young age, becoming fluent in Latin as an adolescent and publishing his first poem at the age of thirteen. In 1822, Longfellow enrolled at Bowdoin College, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne and published poems and stories in local magazines and newspapers. Graduating in 1825, Longfellow was offered a position at Bowdoin as a professor of modern languages before embarking on a journey throughout Europe. He returned home in 1829 to begin teaching and working as the college’s librarian. During this time, he began working as a translator of French, Italian, and Spanish textbooks, eventually publishing a translation of Jorge Manrique, a major Castilian poet of the fifteenth century. In 1836, after a period abroad and the death of his wife Mary, Longfellow accepted a professorship at Harvard, where he taught modern languages while writing the poems that would become Voices of the Night (1839), his debut collection. That same year, Longfellow published Hyperion: A Romance, a novel based partly on his travels and the loss of his wife. In 1843, following a prolonged courtship, Longfellow married Fanny Appleton, with whom he would have six children. That decade proved fortuitous for Longfellow’s life and career, which blossomed with the publication of Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847), an epic poem that earned him a reputation as one of America’s leading writers and allowed him to develop the style that would flourish in The Song of Hiawatha (1855). But tragedy would find him once more. In 1861, an accident led to the death of Fanny and plunged Longfellow into a terrible depression. Although unable to write original poetry for several years after her passing, he began work on the first American translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy and increased his public support of abolitionism. Both steeped in tradition and immensely popular, Longfellow’s poetry continues to be read and revered around the world.
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Reviews for The Courtship of Miles Standish
21 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found this poem a bit disappointing. I am glad I read it as its plot is part of the local history of Massachusetts, dealing as it does with the Pilgrims first few years in Plymouth, and I have seen parts of the poem quoted many times before (especially Priscilla's remark to John Alden). However, I found the poetry itself lacking a bit compared to other of Longfellow's works.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An old book with t the beautiful illustrations by NC Wyeth. Preface by Longfellow who says that he was a direct descendant of Priscilla and John Alden (The subject of the book). Is it verse...is it prose? It is certainly not rhyming verse but obviously designed to be read as verse. An interesting story with the conflict between old friends , Miles Standish the old soldier and John Aldren ...the bookish winner in the contest for Priscilla's hand. I was not especially taken with the poem itself. Ok but didn't especially grab me. But I really bought it for the illustrations and some of these are great...some rather ordinary.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I enjoyed this as an audio book on LibriVox. I appreciated all of the beautiful imagery as well as the many allusions to the Bible.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A bit too thick to listen to- better to read the book.
Book preview
The Courtship of Miles Standish - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
THE
COURTSHIP OF
MILES STANDISH
By
HENRY
WADSWORTH
LONGFELLOW
Illustrated By
N. C. WYETH
First published in 1858
Copyright © 2020 Read & Co. History
This edition is published by Read & Co. History,
an imprint of Read & Co.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any
way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd.
For more information visit
www.readandcobooks.co.uk
Contents
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I MILES STANDISH
II LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP
III THE LOVER'S ERRAND
IV JOHN ALDEN
V THE SAILING OF THE MAY FLOWER
VI PRISCILLA
VII THE MARCH OF MILES STANDISH
VIII THE SPINNING-WHEEL
IX THE WEDDING-DAY
Illustrations
Long at the Window he Stood, and Wistfully Gazed on the Landscape
So Through the Plymouth Woods John Alden went on his Errand
Said in a Tremulous Voice Why Don't you Speak for Yourself, John?
Near them was Standing an Indian, in Attitude Stern and Defiant
Eager, with Tearful Eyes, to Say Farewell to the Mayflower, Homeward Bound O'er the Sea, and Leaving them Here in the Desert
So the Maiden went on, and Little Divined or Imagined what was at Work in his Heart, that Made him so Awkward and Speechless
Headlong he Leaped on the Boaster, and, Snatching his Knife from its Scabbard
So Through the Plymouth Woods Passed Onward the Bridal Procession
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine on February 27th, 1807. His mother, Zilpah Wadsworth, was the daughter of a Revolutionary War hero and his father, Stephen Longfellow, was a prominent Portland lawyer and later a member of Congress. As a young man, Longfellow was a voracious reader, and after graduating from Bowdoin College, Longfellow studied modern languages in Europe for three years, before returning returned to Bowdoin to teach them.
In 1831 Longfellow published his first book, a description of his European travels, titled Overseas. He spent a year in Germany and Switzerland, stricken with grief following the death of his young wife, before taking a position at Harvard in 1836. Over the next five years, he published his first two collection of poems, Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). Many of the poems featured people triumphing over adversity, a theme which chimed with a still-young United States of America.
In 1843, Longfellow remarried, ushering in the happiest eighteen years of his life. Over the following few years, he penned Evangeline (1847), a book-length poem which proved extremely popular, and secured his reputation as the finest living American poet. In 1854, Longfellow decided to quit teaching to devote all his time to poetry. He published Hiawatha (1855), a long poem about Native American life, and The Courtship of Miles Standish and Other Poems (1858). Both books were immensely successful.
A few months after the American Civil War began in 1861, Longfellow's wife perished. Profoundly saddened, Longfellow published nothing for the next two years. He found comfort in reading Dante’s Divine Comedy (and would later produce its first American translation). Tales of a Wayside Inn was published in 1863, consolidating further his reputation. When the Civil War ended in 1865, the poet was 58. His most important work was behind him, but he was by now the most famous American of his day. His admirers included Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, and Charles Baudelaire. From 1866 to 1880, Longfellow published seven more books of poetry, and his seventy-fifth birthday in 1882 was celebrated across the country. His health was deteriorating though, and he died the following month, aged 75.