Eleanor &+Gloria

=  H ﻿E ﻿N ﻿R ﻿Y ﻿ ﻿ W ﻿A ﻿D ﻿S ﻿W﻿ ﻿O ﻿R ﻿T ﻿H ﻿L ﻿O ﻿N ﻿G ﻿F ﻿E ﻿LLO ﻿ ﻿ ﻿ W   = **Biography** Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on Feb./27/1807 in Portland, Maine. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a teacher. Henry loved to read when he was growing up. He graduated from Bowdoin college. He studied modern language for three years. He took a position in Harvard in 1836. In November 1835, during his second trip to Europe his wife died due to a miscarriage. He later met Frances Appleton. He really started to like but, she refused his proposal. Then Frances later accepted the following spring, giving him the happiest years of his life. The couple had six children and five lived to adult hood. His wife Frances was sealing an envelope with wax when her dress caught on fire. Although Henry made many attempts to save her she didn't make it. Henry later died on March,24,1882. **Influences and Styles** Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the most famous poets in the 19th century. After he went to college, his father wanted a legal career for him. Instead, he took a post-graduate year of study or literature and modern language. American authors encouraged Henry to write, despite what his father thought. He mainly wrote lyric poems, but he also wrote free verse, blank verse, couplets, ballads, and sonnets. He wrote about American historical event such as "The Song of Hiawatha", "Paul Revere's Ride", and "Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie".

__Poems__

A Shadow
By, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow I said unto myself, if I were dead   What would befall these children? What would be  Their fate, who now are looking up to me   For help and furtherance? Their lives, I said  Would be volume wherein I have read   But the first chapters, and no longer see   To read the rest of their dear history   So full of beauty and so full of dread   Be comforted; the world is very old   And generations pass, as they have passed,   A troop of shadows moving the sun;   Thousands of times has the old tale been told;   the world belongs to those who come the last,   They will find hope and strength as we have done

Paul Revere's Ride
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year.He said to his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night,  Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch  Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--  One if by land, and two if by sea;  And I on the opposite shore will be,  Ready to ride and spread the alarm  Through every Middlesex village and farm,  For the country folk to be up and to arm." Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, Just as the moon rose over the bay, Where swinging wide at her moorings lay The Somerset, British man-of-war; A phantom ship, with each mast and spar Across the moon like a prison bar, And a huge black hulk, that was magnified By its own reflection in the tide. Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street Wanders and watches, with eager ears, Till in the silence around him he hears The muster of men at the barrack door, The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, And the measured tread of the grenadiers, Marching down to their boats on the shore. Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, To the belfry chamber overhead, And startled the pigeons from their perch On the sombre rafters, that round him made Masses and moving shapes of shade,-- By the trembling ladder, steep and tall, To the highest window in the wall, Where he paused to listen and look down A moment on the roofs of the town And the moonlight flowing over all. Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead, In their night encampment on the hill, Wrapped in silence so deep and still That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread, The watchful night-wind, as it went Creeping along from tent to tent, And seeming to whisper, "All is well!" A moment only he feels the spell Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread Of the lonely belfry and the dead; For suddenly all his thoughts are bent On a shadowy something far away, Where the river widens to meet the bay,-- A line of black that bends and floats On the rising tide like a bridge of boats. Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere. Now he patted his horse's side, Now he gazed at the landscape far and near, Then, impetuous, stamped the earth, And turned and tightened his saddle girth; But mostly he watched with eager search The belfry tower of the Old North Church, As it rose above the graves on the hill, Lonely and spectral and sombre and still. And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height A glimmer, and then a gleam of light! He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight A second lamp in the belfry burns. A hurry of hoofs in a village street, A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet; That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light, The fate of a nation was riding that night; And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, Kindled the land into flame with its heat. He has left the village and mounted the steep, And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep, Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides; And under the alders that skirt its edge, Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge, Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides. It was twelve by the village clock When he crossed the bridge into Medford town. He heard the crowing of the cock, And the barking of the farmer's dog, And felt the damp of the river fog, That rises after the sun goes down. It was one by the village clock, When he galloped into Lexington. He saw the gilded weathercock Swim in the moonlight as he passed, And the meeting-house windows, black and bare, Gaze at him with a spectral glare, As if they already stood aghast At the bloody work they would look upon. It was two by the village clock, When he came to the bridge in Concord town. He heard the bleating of the flock, And the twitter of birds among the trees, And felt the breath of the morning breeze Blowing over the meadow brown. And one was safe and asleep in his bed Who at the bridge would be first to fall, Who that day would be lying dead, Pierced by a British musket ball. You know the rest. In the books you have read How 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 again Under the trees at the turn of the road, And only pausing to fire and load. So through the night rode Paul Revere; And so through the night went his cry of alarm To 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 hear The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed, And the midnight message of Paul Revere. ||
 * Listen my children and you shall hear

Bibliography
"Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : The Poetry Foundation." // Poetry Foundation //. Web. 11 May 2011. . Website [|Tags][|Edit] [|Delete]   "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: His Work." // Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: A Maine Historical Society Web Site //. Web. 09 May 2011. .

Our Poems
﻿ ﻿The first Day of Spring

I step outside I feel a cool breeze but the air is warm The birds are singing like an orchestra and the geese are flying back to their home

Through the clouds the sun is shining, bright and warm encouraging new life from the ground

The crocuses and snow drops are the first streaks of color across the blank canvas

The days are growing longer and are welcomed by excited children

A smile spreads across my face as I think about summer to come


 * Summer Breeze**

**The breeze blows upon me like a wave upon my skin** **Talking and welcoming but, I don't understand** **Please let me know what they are saying** **I want to know please don't leave me out**