Drinking Song, by by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882)

(http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/beer-poetry/#longfellow)

The most widely known and best-loved American poet of his lifetime, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow achieved a level of national and international prominence previously unequaled in the literary history of the United States (www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/henry-wadsworth-longfellow).

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a commanding figure in the cultural life of nineteenth-century America. Born in Portland, Maine, in 1807, he became a national literary figure by the 1850s, and a world- famous personality by the time of his death in 1882.
He was a traveler, a linguist, and a romantic who identified with the great traditions of European literature and thought. At the same time, he was rooted in American life and history, which charged his imagination with untried themes and made him ambitious for success (www.hwlongfellow.org/).


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Portland (Maine), 27 februari 1807 - Cambridge (Massachusetts), 24 maart 1882) was een Amerikaans pedagoog en dichter wiens werk onder meer Paul Revere's Ride, The Song of Hiawatha, en Evangeline omvat. Hij was een van de vijf Fireside Poets.
Longfellow studeerde in Harvard. Hij werd bibliothecaris. Na een reis door Europa (1826-1829) werd hij de eerste hoogleraar in de moderne talen.
In 1831 trouwde hij met Mary Storer Potter, die in 1835, tijdens een nieuwe reis door Europa, in Rotterdam overleed. Hij huwde later met Frances Appleton.
In 1854 verliet hij Harvard om zich volledig aan het schrijven te wijden. Hij ontving in 1859 een eredoctoraat. In 1861 verloor hij zijn vrouw door een brand. Aan die gebeurtenis wijdde hij het nog steeds veel gelezen sonnet The Cross of Snow.
In zijn tijd was zijn poëzie buitengewoon populair, maar slechts een klein deel van zijn omvangrijke oeuvre wordt nog gelezen. Het wordt nu beschouwd als te burgerlijk en sentimenteel (https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow).

De Fireside Poets (ook bekend als the Schoolroom of Household Poets) is de naam waarmee naar een groep van 19e-eeuwse Amerikaanse dichters uit New England wordt verwezen. Tot deze groep worden Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell en Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. gerekend.
De Fireside Poets waren de eerste Amerikaanse dichters die zowel in de VS als in Groot-Brittannië in populariteit konden wedijveren met de Britse dichters. Hun gedichten zijn eerder victoriaans dan romantisch te noemen, en soms overdreven sentimenteel of moraliserend van toon. Zij schreven niet voor andere dichters maar voor het gewone volk, en wilden dat hun verhalen door gezinnen werden gelezen en verteld. Kenmerkend voor deze groep 'huiselijke dichters' is de naleving van poëtische conventies zoals standaard dichtvormen, regelmatig metrum en rijmende coupletten. Dit maakte hun werk bijzonder geschikt voor memoriseren en reciteren op school en thuis, waar het een bron van vermaak was voor families die zich voor die gelegenheid rond de haard ("fireside") verzamelden (https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireside_Poets).
(www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/henry-wadsworth-longfellow)

Henry Wadsworth was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy and was one of the five Fireside Poets.
Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, then part of Massachusetts, and studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at Harvard College. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841).
...On July 9, 1861, a hot day, Fanny was putting locks of her children's hair into an envelope and attempting to seal it with hot sealing wax while Longfellow took a nap. Her dress suddenly caught fire, though it is unclear exactly how; it may have been burning wax or a lighted candle which fell on her dress. Longfellow, awakened from his nap, rushed to help her and threw a rug over her, though it was too small. He stifled the flames with his body as best he could, but she was already badly burned. Over a half a century later, Longfellow's youngest daughter Annie explained the story differently, claiming that there was no candle or wax but that the fire started from a self-lighting match that had fallen on the floor. In both versions of the story, however, Fanny was taken to her room to recover and a doctor was called. She was in and out of consciousness throughout the night and was administered ether. The next morning, July 10, 1861, she died shortly after 10 o'clock after requesting a cup of coffee. Longfellow, in trying to save her, had burned himself badly enough that he was unable to attend her funeral. His facial injuries caused him to stop shaving, thereafter wearing the beard which has become his trademark (www.poemhunter.com/henry-wadsworth-longfellow/biography/).