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122-602: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems " Paul Revere's Ride ", " The Song of Hiawatha ", and " Evangeline ". He was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri 's Divine Comedy and was one of the fireside poets from New England. Longfellow was born in Portland , District of Maine , Massachusetts (now Portland, Maine ). He graduated from Bowdoin College and became

244-549: A punch bowl Revere made. In 1883, Boston held a national competition for an equestrian statue of Revere. It was won by Cyrus Edwin Dallin , although his model was not accepted until 1899, and the statue was not dedicated until 1940. It stands in "Paul Revere Plaza," opposite the Old North Church. In 1896 Helen F. Moore, dismayed that William Dawes had been forgotten, penned a parody of Longfellow's poem: In 2007,

366-453: A " Hidden Ivy ". Bowdoin's dining services have been ranked No. 1 among all universities and colleges nationally by Princeton Review in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2016, with The New York Times reporting: "If it weren't for the trays, and for the fact that most diners are under 25, you'd think it was a restaurant." Bowdoin uses food from its organic garden in its two major dining halls, and every academic year begins with

488-554: A "goody two-shoes kind of literature ... slipshod, sentimental stories told in the style of the nursery, beginning in nothing and ending in nothing". A more modern critic said, "Who, except wretched schoolchildren, now reads Longfellow?" A London critic in the London Quarterly Review , however, condemned all American poetry—"with two or three exceptions, there is not a poet of mark in the whole union"—but he singled out Longfellow as one of those exceptions. An editor of

610-496: A 31-volume anthology called Poems of Places which collected poems representing several geographical locations, including European, Asian, and Arabian countries. 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". In preparing the volume, Longfellow hired Katherine Sherwood Bonner as an amanuensis . Fellow Portland, Maine, native John Neal published

732-640: A Bowdoin alumnus who led the first successful expedition to the North Pole. Between the years 1821 and 1921, Bowdoin operated a medical school called the "Medical School of Maine." The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River . In addition to its Brunswick campus, Bowdoin owns a 118-acre (48 ha) coastal studies center on Orr's Island and a 200-acre (81 ha) scientific field station on Kent Island in

854-448: A ball without her and noted, "The lights seemed dimmer, the music sadder, the flowers fewer, and the women less fair." He and Fanny had six children: Charles Appleton (1844–1893), Ernest Wadsworth (1845–1921), Fanny (1847–1848), Alice Mary (1850–1928), Edith (1853–1915), and Anne Allegra (1855–1934). Their second-youngest daughter was Edith who married Richard Henry Dana III , son of Richard Henry Dana Jr. who wrote Two Years Before

976-501: A call for action, noted that history favors the courageous. Longfellow, who often used poetry to remind readers of cultural and moral values, warns at the end of the poem of a coming "hour of darkness and peril and need", implying the breakup of the Union, and suggests that the "people will waken and listen to hear" the midnight message again. By emphasizing common history, he was attempting to dissolve social tensions. The phrase "Hardly

1098-413: A calling in such vital but often low paying fields such as teaching or social work. With significant debt at graduation, some students will undoubtedly be forced to make career or education choices not based on their talents, interests, and promise in a particular field but rather on their capacity to repay student loans. As an institution devoted to the common good, Bowdoin must consider the fairness of such

1220-648: A cappella groups are on campus; the Meddiebempsters are the oldest. Founded in the spring of 1937, the Meddies performed in USO shows after World War II . Bowdoin College signed onto the American College and University President's Climate Commitment in 2007. The college followed through with a carbon neutrality plan released in 2009, with 2020 as the target year for carbon neutrality. According to

1342-800: A commemorative bust was placed in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey in London; he remains the only American poet represented with a bust. A public monument by Franklin Simmons was erected in Longfellow's birthplace of Portland, Maine, in September 1888. In 1909, a statue of Longfellow was unveiled in Washington, DC, sculpted by William Couper . He was honored in February 1940 and March 2007 when

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1464-488: A connection to the historical Paul Revere. His maternal grandfather, Peleg Wadsworth , was Revere's commander on the Penobscot Expedition . When the poem was written in 1860, America was on the verge of Civil War over the issue of slavery. Longfellow first came forward publicly as an abolitionist in 1842 with the publication of his Poems on Slavery . Though he admitted the book made little impact, it

1586-411: A farewell dinner party at his Cambridge home for his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne , who was preparing to move overseas. In 1854, he retired from Harvard, devoting himself entirely to writing. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from Harvard in 1859. Frances was putting locks of her children's hair into an envelope on July 9, 1861 and attempting to seal it with hot sealing wax while Longfellow took

1708-653: A general in the American Revolutionary War and a Member of Congress. His mother was descended from Richard Warren , a passenger on the Mayflower . He was named after his mother's brother Henry Wadsworth, a Navy lieutenant who had died three years earlier at the Battle of Tripoli . He was the second of eight children. Longfellow was descended from English colonists who settled in New England in

1830-506: A letter from Josiah Quincy III , president of Harvard College, offering him the Smith Professorship of Modern Languages with the stipulation that he spend a year or so abroad. There, he further studied German as well as Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, and Icelandic. In October 1835, his wife Mary had a miscarriage during the trip, about six months into her pregnancy. She did not recover and died after several weeks of illness at

1952-630: A letter from Fanny Appleton agreeing to marry him. He was too restless to take a carriage and walked 90 minutes to meet her at her house. They were soon married; Nathan Appleton bought the Craigie House as a wedding present, and Longfellow lived there for the rest of his life. His love for Fanny is evident in the following lines from his only love poem, the sonnet "The Evening Star" which he wrote in October 1845: "O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus ! My morning and my evening star of love!" He once attended

2074-530: A lobster bake outside Farley Fieldhouse. Recalling his days at Bowdoin in a 2005 interview, Professor Richard E. Morgan (class of 1959) described student life at the then-all-male school as "monastic" and noted that "the only things to do were either work or drink". This is corroborated by the Official Preppy Handbook , which in 1980 ranked Bowdoin the number two drinking school in the country, behind Dartmouth . These days, Morgan observed,

2196-432: A man is now alive" was true as one of the last men alive at the time of the historical event had only recently died. Jonathan Harrington , the young fifer for Lexington's militia during the battles of Lexington and Concord , died at the age of 96 in 1854, a few years before the poem was written. It is unknown if Longfellow would have known this information. The poem fluctuates between past and present tense, sometimes in

2318-536: A miscarriage. His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns when her dress caught fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on translating works from foreign languages. Longfellow died in 1882. Longfellow wrote many lyric poems known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and had success overseas. He has been criticized for imitating European styles and writing poetry that

2440-442: A nap. Her dress suddenly caught fire, but it is unclear exactly how; burning wax or a lighted candle may have fallen onto it. Longfellow was awakened from his nap and rushed to help her, throwing a rug over her, but it was too small. He stifled the flames with his body, but she was badly burned. Longfellow's youngest daughter Annie explained the story differently some 50 years later, claiming that there had been no candle or wax but that

2562-491: A popular audience as "the expressor of common themes—of the little songs of the masses". He added, "Longfellow was no revolutionarie: never traveled new paths: of course never broke new paths." Lewis Mumford said that Longfellow could be completely removed from the history of literature without much effect. Toward the end of his life, contemporaries considered him as more of a children's poet , as many of his readers were children. A reviewer in 1848 accused Longfellow of creating

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2684-652: A professor there and, later, at Harvard College after studying in Europe. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). He retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, and he lived the remainder of his life in the Revolutionary War headquarters of George Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts . His first wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after

2806-562: A result." In February 2009, following a US$ 10 million donation (equivalent to $ 14.2 million in 2023) by Subway co-founder and alumnus Peter Buck , class of 1952, the college completed a $ 250-million capital campaign. Additionally, the college has also recently completed major construction projects on the campus, including a renovation of the college's art museum and a new fitness center named after Peter Buck. On July 1, 2015, Clayton Rose succeeded Mills as president. Eight years later, on July 1, 2023, Safa Zaki succeeded Rose as

2928-543: A six-month leave of absence from Harvard University to attend a health spa in the former Marienberg Benedictine Convent at Boppard in Germany. After returning, he published the play The Spanish Student in 1842, reflecting his memories from his time in Spain in the 1820s. The small collection Poems on Slavery was published in 1842 as Longfellow's first public support of abolitionism. However, as Longfellow himself wrote,

3050-554: A system of college-owned social houses. In 1970, Bowdoin began competing in the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium , with Bates and Colby. The consortium became both an athletic rivalry and an academic exchange program. On January 18, 2008, Bowdoin announced that it would eliminate loans for all new and current students receiving financial aid, replacing those loans with grants beginning with the 2008–2009 academic year. President Barry Mills stated, "Some see

3172-556: 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. 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. 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

3294-546: Is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education . Bowdoin was ranked first among 1,204 small colleges in the U.S. by Niche in 2017, but has since fallen to 6th. Based on students' SAT scores, Bowdoin is tied with Williams for 5th in Business Insider's smartest liberal arts colleges, with an average score of 1435 for math and critical reading combined. Among all colleges, it

3416-402: Is a need-blind and no-loans institution. While a significant portion of the student body hails from New England —including nearly 25% from Massachusetts and 10% from Maine—recent classes have drawn from an increasingly national and international pool. The median family income of Bowdoin students is $ 195,900, with 57% of students coming from the top 10% of highest-earning families and 17.5% from

3538-506: Is buried with both of his wives at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His last few years were spent translating the poetry of Michelangelo . Longfellow never considered it complete enough to be published during his lifetime, but a posthumous edition was collected in 1883. Scholars generally regard the work as autobiographical, reflecting the translator as an aging artist facing his impending death. Much of Longfellow's work

3660-411: Is categorized as lyric poetry , but he experimented with many forms, including hexameter and free verse . His published poetry shows great versatility, using anapestic and trochaic forms, blank verse , heroic couplets , ballads , and sonnets . Typically, he would carefully consider the subject of his poetic ideas for a long time before deciding on the right metrical form for it. Much of his work

3782-451: Is depicted as bedtime for a cranky child. Many of the metaphors that he used in his poetry came from legends, mythology, and literature. He was inspired, for example, by Norse mythology for " The Skeleton in Armor " and by Finnish legends for The Song of Hiawatha . Longfellow rarely wrote on current subjects and seemed detached from contemporary American concerns. Even so, he called for

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3904-598: Is instead a generalized poem of mourning. 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". His memorial poem to her was the sonnet "The Cross of Snow" and was not published in his lifetime. Longfellow often used didacticism in his poetry, but he focused on it less in his later years. Much of his poetry imparts cultural and moral values, particularly focused on life being more than material pursuits. He often used allegory in his work. In "Nature", for example, death

4026-787: Is located 8 miles (13 km) south of Orr's Island in Harpswell, Maine . Bowdoin College operates the Bowdoin Scientific Station on Kent Island in the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. Organized athletics at Bowdoin began in 1828 with a gymnastics program established by the "father of athletics in Maine", John Neal . In the proceeding years, Neal agitated for more programs, and himself taught bowling , boxing , and other sports. Bowdoin College teams are known as

4148-428: Is recognized for its melodious musicality. As he says, "what a writer asks of his reader is not so much to like as to listen ". 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

4270-490: Is the Outing Club, which leads canoeing, kayaking, rafting, camping, and backpacking trips throughout Maine. One of the school's two historic rival literary societies, The Peucinian Society, has recently been revitalized from its previous form. The Peucinian Society was founded in 1805. This organization counts such people as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain among its former members. The other,

4392-782: Is the oldest continuously published college weekly in the United States. The Orient was named the second-best tabloid-sized college weekly at a Collegiate Associated Press conference in March 2007 and the best college newspaper in New England by the New England Society of News Editors in 2018. The school's literary magazine, The Quill , was published between 1897 and 2015. The Bowdoin Globalist , an international news, culture, and politics magazine affiliated with

4514-496: Is tied with Brown , Carnegie Mellon , and Williams for 22nd. The college was ranked 5th in the country by Washington Monthly in 2019 based on its contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service. In 2006, Newsweek described Bowdoin as a " New Ivy ", one of a number of liberal arts colleges and universities outside of the Ivy League , and it has also been dubbed

4636-608: Is white. The fight song, Forward The White , was composed by Kenneth A. Robinson, class of 1914. The college's rowing club competes in the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Chase Regatta annually. The rowing club also competes as a member of the American Collegiate Rowing Association; the women's team won its first national championship in 2023. The field hockey team are four-time NCAA Division III National Champions; winning

4758-608: The Bay of Fundy . Bowdoin College was chartered in 1794 by the Massachusetts State Legislature and was later redirected under the jurisdiction of the Maine Legislature . It was named for former Massachusetts governor James Bowdoin , whose son James Bowdoin III was an early benefactor. Bowdoin began to develop in the 1820s, a decade in which Maine became an independent state as a result of

4880-539: The Boston Evening Transcript wrote in 1846, "Whatever the miserable envy of trashy criticism may write against Longfellow, one thing is most certain, no American poet is more read". Longfellow was the most popular poet of his day. As a friend once wrote, "no other poet was so fully recognized in his lifetime". Many of his works helped shape the American character and its legacy, particularly with

5002-791: The Colonial Revival Movement of the 1870s. In 1875, for example, the Old North Church mentioned in the poem began an annual custom called the "lantern ceremony" recreating the action of the poem. Three years later, the Church added a plaque noting it as the site of "the signal lanterns of Paul Revere". Revere's elevated historical importance also led to unsubstantiated rumors that he made a set of false teeth for George Washington . Revere's legendary status continued for decades and, in part due to Longfellow's poem, authentic silverware made by Revere commanded high prices. Wall Street tycoon J. P. Morgan , for example, offered $ 100,000 for

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5124-616: The Missouri Compromise and graduated U.S. President Franklin Pierce . The college also graduated two literary philosophers, the writers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , both of whom graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1825. Pierce and Hawthorne began an official militia company called the 'Bowdoin Cadets'. From its founding, Bowdoin was known to educate the sons of the political elite and "catered very largely to

5246-533: The United Daughters of the Confederacy . The award, however, was discontinued in 2015, with the current college president citing it as inappropriate because it was named after someone "whose mission was to preserve and institutionalize slavery". Although Bowdoin's Medical School of Maine closed its doors in 1921, it produced Augustus Stinchfield , who received his M.D. in 1868 and became one of

5368-761: The United States Postal Service (USPS) issued a commemorative stamp with images referencing the poem. Longfellow is represented by a painting by artist Kazuhiko Sano. Peucinian Society Bowdoin College ( / ˈ b oʊ d ɪ n / ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine . When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts . The college offers 35 majors and 40 minors, as well as several joint engineering programs with Columbia , Caltech , Dartmouth College , and

5490-596: The United States Postal Service issued stamps commemorating him. As a memorial to their father, Longfellow's children donated land across Brattle Street and facing the family home to the City of Cambridge, which became Longfellow Park. A monument featuring a bas relief of Miles Standish, Sadalphon, the Village Blacksmith, the Spanish Student, Evangeline, and Hiawatha, characters from Longfellow's works,

5612-564: The University of Maine . The college was a founding member of its athletic conference , the New England Small College Athletic Conference , and the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium , an athletic conference and inter-library exchange with Bates College and Colby College . Bowdoin has over 30 varsity teams, and the school mascot was selected as a polar bear in 1913 to honor Robert Peary ,

5734-529: The 10,930 applications received in the class of 2027. U.S. News & World Report classifies Bowdoin as "most selective". Of enrolling students, 89% are in the top 10% of their high school graduating class. Although Bowdoin does not require the SAT in admissions, all students may submit a score upon application. The middle 50% SAT range for the verbal and math sections of the SAT is 660–750 and 660–750, respectively—numbers of only those submitting scores during

5856-859: The 18th century. Prominent buildings on the campus include the college's oldest building, Massachusetts Hall , the Parker Cleaveland House , and the Harriet Beecher Stowe House . The campus has two museums. The Bowdoin College Museum of Art is in the Walker Art Building and the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum is in the Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies. The 118-acre (48 ha) Schiller Coastal Studies Center

5978-542: The 1970s but were reinstated by a faculty majority vote in 1981 due to an initiative by oral communication and film professor Barbara Kaster. She insisted that distribution requirements would ensure students a more well-rounded education in a diversity of fields and therefore present them with more career possibilities. The requirements of at least two courses in each of the categories of Natural Sciences /mathematics, social and behavioral sciences , humanities / Fine Arts , and foreign studies (including languages) took effect for

6100-660: The 20th century, literary scholar Kermit Vanderbilt noted: "Increasingly rare is the scholar who braves ridicule to justify the art of Longfellow's popular rhymings." Twentieth-century poet Lewis Putnam Turco concluded that "Longfellow was minor and derivative in every way throughout his career ... nothing more than a hack imitator of the English Romantics." Author Nicholas A. Basbanes , in his 2020 book Cross of Snow: A Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , defended Longfellow as "the victim of an orchestrated dismissal that may well be unique in American literary history". Over

6222-809: The Charles River when, in reality, he was rowed over by others. He also did not reach Concord that night. Another inaccuracy is a general lengthening of the time frame of the night's events. The majority of criticism, however, notes that Longfellow gave sole credit to Revere for the collective achievements of three riders (as well as other riders, whose names do not survive to history). In fact, Revere and William Dawes rode (via different routes) from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that British troops were marching from Boston to Lexington to arrest them and seize Patriot weapons stores in Concord. Revere and Dawes rode toward Concord, where

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6344-580: The Global21 organization of college magazines, has been publishing since 2012. The Bowdoin Globalist transitioned to a digital-only platform in 2015 and changed its name to The Bowdoin Review . The college's radio station, WBOR , has been operating since the early 1940s. In 1999, The Bowdoin Cable Network was formed, producing a weekly newscast and several student-created shows per semester. Six

6466-471: The Institute of International Education. Other notable Bowdoin faculty include (or have included): Edville Gerhardt Abbott , Charles Beitz , John Bisbee , Paul Chadbourne , Thomas Cornell , Kristen R. Ghodsee , Eddie Glaude , Joseph E. Johnson , Richard Morgan , Elliott Schwartz , Kenneth Chenault , and Scott Sehon . In the 2022 edition of the U.S. News & World Report rankings, Bowdoin

6588-497: The Mast . Their daughter Fanny was born on April 7, 1847, and Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep administered ether to the mother as the first obstetric anesthetic in the United States. Longfellow published his epic poem Evangeline for the first time a few months later on November 1, 1847. His literary income was increasing considerably; in 1840, he had made $ 219 from his work, but 1850 brought him $ 1,900. On June 14, 1853, Longfellow held

6710-626: The Night was translations, but he included nine original poems and seven poems that he had written as a teenager. Ballads and Other Poems was published in 1841 and included " The Village Blacksmith " and " The Wreck of the Hesperus ", which were instantly popular. He became part of the local social scene, creating a group of friends who called themselves the Five of Clubs. Members included Cornelius Conway Felton , George Stillman Hillard , and Charles Sumner ; Sumner became Longfellow's closest friend over

6832-469: The Northern Ireland peace process. In 1970, the college became one of a very limited number of liberal arts colleges to make the SAT optional in the admissions process, and in 1971, after nearly 180 years as a small men's college, Bowdoin admitted its first class of women. On February 28, 1997 Bowdoin's Board of Trustees approved a plan to phase out fraternities on campus, replacing them with

6954-613: The Polar Bears. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III level, primarily competing in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), of which they were a founding member in 1971. The mascot for all Bowdoin College athletic teams is the Polar bear , generally referred to in the plural, i.e., "The Polar Bears." The uniform color

7076-598: The Portland Gazette on November 17, 1820, a patriotic and historical four-stanza poem called "The Battle of Lovell's Pond". He studied at the Portland Academy until age 14. He spent much of his summers as a child at his grandfather Peleg's farm in Hiram, Maine . In the fall of 1822, 15-year-old Longfellow enrolled at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine , along with his brother Stephen. His grandfather

7198-540: The Sea in serial form before a book edition was released in 1835. Shortly after the book's publication, Longfellow attempted to join the literary circle in New York and asked George Pope Morris for an editorial role at one of Morris's publications. He considered moving to New York after New York University proposed offering him a newly created professorship of modern languages, but there would be no salary. The professorship

7320-633: The Sustainable Endowments Institute. In 2003, Bowdoin committed to achieving LEED -certification for all new campus buildings. The college has since completed construction on Osher and West residency halls, the Peter Buck Center for Health & Fitness, the Sidney J. Watson Arena , 216 Maine Street, and 52 Harpswell all of which have attained LEED, Silver LEED or Gold LEED certification. The new dorms partially use collected rainwater as part of an advanced flushing system. Bowdoin College's main campus in Brunswick ranges over an area of 215 acres (87 ha) and includes 120 buildings, some of which date back to

7442-405: The Treasury during the Lincoln Administration . With strained slave-relations between political parties, President Franklin Pierce appointed Jefferson Davis as his Secretary of War , and the college awarded the soon-to-be President of the Confederacy an honorary degree. The Jefferson Davis Award was given to a student who excelled in legal studies after a donation was given to the college by

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7564-503: The admissions process. The middle 50% ACT range is 30–33. The April 17, 2008, edition of The Economist noted Bowdoin in an article on university admissions: "So-called 'almost-Ivies' such as Bowdoin and Middlebury also saw record low admission rates this year (18% each). It is now as hard to get into Bowdoin, says the college's admissions director, as it was to get into Princeton in the 1970s." Many students apply for financial aid, and around 85% of those who apply to receive aid. Bowdoin

7686-454: The age of 22 on November 29, 1835. Longfellow had her body embalmed immediately and placed in a lead coffin inside an oak coffin, which was shipped to Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston. He was deeply saddened by her death and wrote: "One thought occupies me night and day...She is dead – She is dead! All day I am weary and sad". Three years later, he was inspired to write the poem "Footsteps of Angels" about her. Several years later, he wrote

7808-416: The alarm throughout Middlesex County, Massachusetts . The unnamed friend climbs up the steeple and soon sets up two signal lanterns, informing Revere that the British are coming by sea. Revere rides his horse through Medford , Lexington , and Concord to warn the patriots. Longfellow was inspired to write the poem after visiting the Old North Church and climbing its tower on April 5, 1860. He began writing

7930-429: 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". 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. In 1874, Longfellow oversaw

8052-437: The best poet in America". Poe's reputation increased as a critic, however, and he later publicly accused Longfellow of plagiarism in what Poe biographers call "The Longfellow War". He wrote that Longfellow was "a determined imitator and a dextrous adapter of the ideas of other people", specifically Alfred, Lord Tennyson . His accusations may have been a publicity stunt to boost readership of the Broadway Journal , for which he

8174-457: The bottom 60%. Although Bowdoin once had a reputation for homogeneity (both ethnically and socioeconomically), a diversity campaign has increased the percentage of students of color in recent classes to more than 31%. In fact, admission of minorities goes back at least as far as John Brown Russwurm 1826, Bowdoin's first Black college graduate and the third Black graduate of any American college. Course distribution requirements were abolished in

8296-411: The campus set heating point from 72 to 68 degrees, and by adhering to its own Green Design Standards in renovations. In addition, Bowdoin runs a single stream recycling program, and its dining services department has begun composting food waste and unbleached paper napkins. Bowdoin received an overall "B−" grade for its sustainability efforts on the College Sustainability Report Card 2009 published by

8418-424: The class of 1987 and have been gradually amended since then. Current requirements require one course each in natural sciences, quantitative reasoning, visual and performing arts, international perspectives, and difference, power, and inequity. A small writing-intensive course, called a first-year seminar, is also required. The most popular majors, by 2021 graduates, were: In 1990, the Bowdoin faculty voted to change

8540-505: The co-founders of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota . In 1877, the college would go on to graduate Charles Morse , the American banker who established a near-monopoly of the ice business in New York, which directly led to the financial Panic of 1907 . The college went on to educate and eventually graduate Arctic explorers Robert E. Peary , class of 1877, and Donald B. MacMillan , class of 1898. Robert Peary named Bowdoin Fjord and Bowdoin Glacier after his alma mater. Peary led

8662-443: The college offers a far broader array of recreational opportunities: "If we could have looked forward in time to Bowdoin's standard of living today, we would have been astounded." Since abolishing Greek fraternities in the late 1990s, Bowdoin has switched to a system in which entering students are assigned a "college house" affiliation correlating with their first-year dormitory. While six houses were originally established following

8784-465: The college was on track to meet the 28% own source reduction target, and efforts have continued in the areas of energy conservation, efficiency upgrades and transitioning to lower carbon fuel sources. Bowdoin's facilities are heated by an on-campus heating plant that burns natural gas. Between 2002 and 2008, Bowdoin College decreased its CO 2 emissions by 40%. It achieved that reduction by switching from No. 6 to No. 2 oil in its heating plant, reducing

8906-631: The condition that he travel to Europe to study French, Spanish, and Italian. Whatever the catalyst, Longfellow began his tour of Europe in May 1826 aboard the ship Cadmus . His time abroad lasted three years and cost his father $ 2,604.24, the equivalent of over $ 67,000 today. He traveled to France, Spain, Italy, Germany, back to France, then to England before returning to the United States in mid-August 1829. While overseas, he learned French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, mostly without formal instruction. In Madrid, he spent time with Washington Irving and

9028-531: The construction of two new dorms, two were added effective in the fall of 2007, and one added in the fall of 2019, bringing the current total to eight: Baxter, Quinby, MacMillan, Howell, Helmreich, Reed, Burnett, and Boody-Johnson. The college houses are physical buildings around campus that host parties and other events throughout the year. Those students who choose not to live in their affiliated house retain their affiliation and are considered members throughout their Bowdoin career. The largest student group on campus

9150-753: The courtship, Longfellow frequently walked from Cambridge to the Appleton home in Beacon Hill in Boston by crossing the Boston Bridge. That bridge was replaced in 1906 by a new bridge which was later renamed the Longfellow Bridge . In late 1839, Longfellow published Hyperion , inspired by his trips abroad and his unsuccessful courtship of Fanny Appleton. Amidst this, he fell into "periods of neurotic depression with moments of panic" and took

9272-413: The development of high quality American literature, as did many others during this period. In Kavanagh , a character says: 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

9394-442: The duties required". The trustees raised his salary to $ 800 with an additional $ 100 to serve as the college's librarian, a post which required one hour of work per day. During his years teaching at the college, he translated textbooks from French, Italian, and Spanish; his first published book was a translation of the poetry of medieval Spanish poet Jorge Manrique in 1833. He published the travel book Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond

9516-704: The early 1600s. They included Mayflower Pilgrims Richard Warren , William Brewster , and John and Priscilla Alden through their daughter Elizabeth Pabodie , the first child born in Plymouth Colony . Longfellow attended a dame school at the age of three and was enrolled by age six at the private Portland Academy . In his years there, he earned a reputation as being very studious and became fluent in Latin. His mother encouraged his enthusiasm for reading and learning, introducing him to Robinson Crusoe and Don Quixote . He published his first poem at age 13 in

9638-422: The fire had started from a self-lighting match that had fallen on the floor. Both accounts state that Frances 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 . She died shortly after 10 the next morning, July 10, after requesting a cup of coffee. Longfellow had burned himself while trying to save her, badly enough that he

9760-408: The first American celebrities and was popular in Europe. It was reported that 10,000 copies of The Courtship of Miles Standish sold in London in a single day. Children adored him; "The Village Blacksmith"'s "spreading chestnut-tree" was cut down and the children of Cambridge had it converted into an armchair which they presented to him. In 1884, Longfellow became the first non-British writer for whom

9882-489: The first substantial praise of Longfellow's work. In the January 23, 1828, issue of his magazine The Yankee , he wrote, "As for Mr. Longfellow, he has a fine genius and a pure and safe taste, and all that he wants, we believe, is a little more energy, and a little more stoutness." Longfellow's early collections Voices of the Night and Ballads and Other Poems made him instantly popular. The New-Yorker called him "one of

10004-518: The first successful expedition to the North Pole in 1908, and MacMillan, a member of Peary's crew, explored Greenland , Baffin Island , and Labrador in the schooner Bowdoin between 1908 and 1954. Wallace H. White, Jr. , class of 1899, served as Senate Minority Leader from 1944 to 1947 and Senate Majority Leader from 1947 to 1949; George J. Mitchell , class of 1954, served as Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995 before assuming an active role in

10126-458: The first woman ever to assume presidency of the college. The acceptance rate for the class of 2027 was 8.0%. The applicant pool consisted of 10,930 candidates, up 16% from 9,376 for the class of 2026. The college received just over 13,200 applications for the class of 2028 – the highest application numbers in the college's history and a continuation of the rise in applications over the past two years. Applications increased by about 20%, surpassing

10248-425: The four-level grading system to the traditional A, B, C, D, and F system. The previous system, consisting of high honors, honors, pass, and fail, was devised primarily to de-emphasize the importance of grades and to reduce competition. In 2002, the faculty decided to change the grading system to incorporate plus and minus grades. In 2006, Bowdoin was named a "Top Producer of Fulbright Awards for American Students" by

10370-489: The home, the widow of Andrew Craigie , and she rented rooms on the second floor. Previous boarders included Jared Sparks , Edward Everett , and Joseph Emerson Worcester . It is preserved today as the Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site . Longfellow began publishing his poetry in 1839, including the collection Voices of the Night , his debut book of poetry. The bulk of Voices of

10492-602: The least...the fact is, I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature, my whole soul burns most ardently after it, and every earthly thought centres in it...I am almost confident in believing, that if I can ever rise in the world it must be by the exercise of my talents in the wide field of literature. He pursued his literary goals by submitting poetry and prose to various newspapers and magazines, partly due to encouragement from Professor Thomas Cogswell Upham . He published nearly 40 minor poems between January 1824 and his graduation in 1825. About 24 of them were published in

10614-475: The militia there. Longfellow's poem is credited with creating the national legend of Paul Revere, a previously little-known Massachusetts silversmith . Upon Revere's death in 1818, for example, his obituary did not mention his midnight ride but instead focused on his business sense and his many friends. The fame that Longfellow brought to Revere, however, did not materialize until after the Civil War amidst

10736-559: The militia's arsenal was hidden; they were joined by Samuel Prescott , a doctor who lived in Concord and happened to be in Lexington. Revere, Dawes, and Prescott were stopped by a detachment of British troops in Lincoln on the road to Concord. Prescott and Dawes escaped, but Revere was detained and questioned and then escorted by three British officers back to Lexington. Of the three riders, only Prescott arrived at Concord in time to warn

10858-402: The next 30 years. Longfellow was well liked as a professor, but he disliked being "constantly a playmate for boys" rather than "stretching out and grappling with men's minds." Longfellow met Boston industrialist Nathan Appleton and his son Thomas Gold Appleton in the town of Thun , Switzerland. There he began courting Appleton's daughter Frances "Fanny" Appleton. The independent-minded Fanny

10980-641: The northern and southern states after the American Civil War . His son Charles was injured during the war, and he wrote the poem "Christmas Bells", later the basis of the carol I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day . He wrote in his journal in 1878: "I have only one desire; and that is for harmony, and a frank and honest understanding between North and South". Longfellow accepted an offer from Joshua Chamberlain to speak at his fiftieth reunion at Bowdoin College, despite his aversion to public speaking. He read

11102-684: The now-defunct Athenian Society, included Nathaniel Hawthorne and Franklin Pierce as members. Bowdoin competes in the Standard Platform League of RoboCup as the Northern Bites, where teams compete with five autonomous Aldebaran Nao robots. Bowdoin won the world championship in RoboCup 2007, beating Carnegie Mellon University , and finished 2nd in the 2015 US Open. Bowdoin's student newspaper, The Bowdoin Orient ,

11224-529: The plan, general improvements to Maine's electricity grid will account for 7% of carbon reductions, commuting improvements will account for 1%, and the purchase of renewable energy credits will account for 41%. The plan includes the construction of a solar thermal system, part of the "Thorne Solar Hot Water Project"; cogeneration in the central heating plant (for which Bowdoin received $ 400,000 in federal grants); lighting upgrades to all campus buildings; and modern monitoring systems of energy usage on campus. In 2017,

11346-515: The poem " Paul Revere's Ride ". He was such an admired figure in the United States during his life that his 70th birthday in 1877 took on the air of a national holiday, with parades, speeches, and the reading of his poetry. Longfellow's popularity rapidly declined, beginning shortly after his death and into the 20th century, as academics focused attention on other poets such as Walt Whitman, Edwin Arlington Robinson , and Robert Frost . In

11468-567: The poem "Mezzo Cammin", which expressed his personal struggles in his middle years. Longfellow returned to the United States in 1836 and took up the professorship at Harvard. He was required to live in Cambridge to be close to the campus and, therefore, rented rooms at the Craigie House in the spring of 1837. The home was built in 1759 and was the headquarters of George Washington during the Siege of Boston beginning in July 1775. Elizabeth Craigie owned

11590-453: The poem "Morituri Salutamus" so quietly that few could hear him. The next year, he declined an offer to be nominated for the Board of Overseers at Harvard "for reasons very conclusive to my own mind". On August 22, 1879, a female admirer traveled to Longfellow's house in Cambridge and, unaware to whom she was speaking, asked him: "Is this the house where Longfellow was born?" He told her that it

11712-406: The poem emphasize not the poem's overall quality of writing, but its many historical inaccuracies. For example, the poem depicts the lantern signal in the Old North Church as meant for Revere, but actually the signal was from Revere: the historical Paul Revere did not receive the lantern signal, but actually was the one who ordered it to be set up. The poem also depicts Revere rowing himself across

11834-428: The poem the next day. It was first published in the January 1861 issue of The Atlantic Monthly . It was later re-published in Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn as "The Landlord's Tale" in 1863. The poem served as the first in a series of 22 narratives bundled as a collection, similar to Geoffrey Chaucer 's The Canterbury Tales , and was published in three installments over 10 years. Longfellow's family had

11956-459: The poems were "so mild that even a Slaveholder might read them without losing his appetite for breakfast". A critic for The Dial agreed, calling it "the thinnest of all Mr. Longfellow's thin books; spirited and polished like its forerunners; but the topic would warrant a deeper tone". The New England Anti-Slavery Society , however, was satisfied enough with the collection to reprint it for further distribution. On May 10, 1843, Longfellow received

12078-627: The same sentence, symbolically pulling the actions of the Revolution into modern times and displaying an event with timeless sympathies. Longfellow's poem is not historically accurate but his "mistakes" were deliberate. He had researched the historical event, using works like George Bancroft 's History of the United States , but he manipulated the facts for poetic effect. He was purposefully trying to create American legends, much as he did with works like The Song of Hiawatha (1855) and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858). Modern critics of

12200-529: The short-lived Boston periodical The United States Literary Gazette . When Longfellow graduated from Bowdoin, he was ranked fourth in the class and had been elected to Phi Beta Kappa . He gave the student commencement address. After graduating in 1825, Longfellow was offered a job as professor of modern languages at his alma mater. An apocryphal story claims that college trustee Benjamin Orr had been impressed by Longfellow's translation of Horace and hired him under

12322-506: The sonnet "The Cross of Snow" (1879) which he wrote 18 years later to commemorate her death: Longfellow spent several years translating Dante Alighieri 's Divine Comedy . To aid him in perfecting the translation and reviewing proofs, he invited friends to meetings every Wednesday starting in 1864. The "Dante Club", as it was called, regularly included William Dean Howells , James Russell Lowell , and Charles Eliot Norton , as well as other occasional guests. The full three-volume translation

12444-510: The title in 2007 (defeating Middlebury College ), 2008 (defeating Tufts University ), 2010 (defeating Messiah College ), and 2013 (defeating Salisbury University ). The men's tennis team won the 2016 NCAA Division III Championship after defeating Emory University in Kalamazoo, Michigan . Principal athletic facilities include Whittier Field (capacity: 9,000), Morrell Gymnasium (1,500), Sidney J. Watson Arena (2,300), Pickard Fields, and

12566-525: The very few in our time who has successfully aimed in putting poetry to its best and sweetest uses". The Southern Literary Messenger immediately put Longfellow "among the first of our American poets". Poet John Greenleaf Whittier said that Longfellow's poetry illustrated "the careful moulding by which art attains the graceful ease and chaste simplicity of nature". Longfellow's friend Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wrote of him as "our chief singer" and one who "wins and warms ... kindles, softens, cheers [and] calms

12688-497: The wealthy conservative from the state of Maine." During the first half of the 19th century, Bowdoin required of its students a certificate of "good moral character" as well as knowledge of Latin and Ancient Greek , geography, algebra, and the major works of Cicero , Xenophon , Virgil and Homer . Harriet Beecher Stowe started writing her influential anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin , in Brunswick while her husband

12810-453: The wildest woe and stays the bitterest tears!" The rapidity with which American readers embraced Longfellow was unparalleled in publishing history in the United States; by 1874, he was earning $ 3,000 (~$ 80,788 in 2023) per poem. His popularity spread throughout Europe as well, and his poetry was translated during his lifetime into Italian, French, German, and other languages. Scholar Bliss Perry suggests that criticizing Longfellow at that time

12932-468: The years, Longfellow's personality has become part of his reputation. He has been presented as a gentle, placid, poetic soul, an image perpetuated by his brother Samuel Longfellow who wrote an early biography which specifically emphasized these points. As James Russell Lowell said, Longfellow had an "absolute sweetness, simplicity, and modesty". At Longfellow's funeral, his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson called him "a sweet and beautiful soul". In reality, his life

13054-505: Was a founder of the college and his father was a trustee. There Longfellow met Nathaniel Hawthorne who became his lifelong friend. He boarded with a clergyman for a time before rooming on the third floor in 1823 of what is now known as Winthrop Hall. He joined the Peucinian Society , a group of students with Federalist leanings. In his senior year, Longfellow wrote to his father about his aspirations: I will not disguise it in

13176-549: Was almost a criminal act equal to "carrying a rifle into a national park". In the last two decades of his life, he often received requests for autographs from strangers, which he always sent. John Greenleaf Whittier suggested that it was this massive correspondence which led to Longfellow's death: "My friend Longfellow was driven to death by these incessant demands". Contemporaneous writer Edgar Allan Poe wrote to Longfellow in May 1841 of his "fervent admiration which [your] genius has inspired in me" and later called him "unquestionably

13298-619: Was dedicated in October 1914. Sources Paul Revere%27s Ride The poem is spoken by the landlord of the Wayside Inn and tells a partly fictionalized story of Paul Revere. In the poem, Revere tells a friend to prepare signal lanterns in the Old North Church to inform him whether British forces will come by land or sea. He would await the signal across the river in Charlestown and be ready to spread

13420-461: Was in command of the 20th Maine in defense of Little Round Top . Major General Oliver Otis Howard , class of 1850, led the Freedmen's Bureau after the war and later founded Howard University ; Massachusetts Governor John Andrew , class of 1837, was responsible for the formation of the 54th Massachusetts ; and William P. Fessenden (1823) and Hugh McCulloch (1827) both served as Secretary of

13542-467: Was much more difficult than was assumed. He suffered from neuralgia , which caused him constant pain, and he had poor eyesight. He wrote to friend Charles Sumner: "I do not believe anyone can be perfectly well, who has a brain and a heart". He had difficulty coping with the death of his second wife Frances. Longfellow was very quiet, reserved, and private; in later years, he was known for being unsocial and avoided leaving home. Longfellow had become one of

13664-587: Was not created and Longfellow agreed to continue teaching at Bowdoin. It may have been joyless work. He wrote, "I hate the sight of pen, ink, and paper ... I do not believe that I was born for such a lot. I have aimed higher than this". On September 14, 1831, Longfellow married Mary Storer Potter, a childhood friend from Portland. The couple settled in Brunswick, but the two were not happy there. Longfellow published several nonfiction and fiction prose pieces in 1833 inspired by Irving, including "The Indian Summer" and "The Bald Eagle". In December 1834, Longfellow received

13786-414: Was not interested in marriage, but Longfellow was determined. In July 1839, he wrote to a friend: "Victory hangs doubtful. The lady says she will not ! I say she shall ! It is not pride , but the madness of passion". His friend George Stillman Hillard encouraged him in the pursuit: "I delight to see you keeping up so stout a heart for the resolve to conquer is half the battle in love as well as war". During

13908-414: Was not. The visitor then asked if he had died here. "Not yet", he replied. In March 1882, Longfellow went to bed with severe stomach pain. He endured the pain for several days with the help of opium before he died surrounded by family on Friday, March 24. He had been suffering from peritonitis . At the time of his death, his estate was worth an estimated $ 356,320 (~$ 11.7 million in 2024 terms). He

14030-436: Was particularly impressed by the author's work ethic. Irving encouraged the young Longfellow to pursue writing. While in Spain, Longfellow was saddened to learn that his favorite sister Elizabeth had died of tuberculosis at the age of 20 in May of 1829. On August 27, 1829, he wrote to the president of Bowdoin that he was turning down the professorship because he considered the $ 600 (~$ 17,168 in 2023) salary "disproportionate to

14152-533: Was published in the spring of 1867, but Longfellow continued to revise it. It went through four printings in its first year. By 1868, Longfellow's annual income was over $ 48,000 (~$ 915,594 in 2023). In 1874, Samuel Ward helped him sell the poem "The Hanging of the Crane" to The New York Ledger for $ 3,000 (~$ 80,788 in 2023). At that time, this was the highest price ever paid for a poem. Longfellow supported abolitionism and especially hoped for reconciliation between

14274-419: Was ranked tied for 6th best overall among liberal arts colleges in the United States, tied at 3rd for "Best Undergraduate Teaching", 7th in "Best Value Schools", and tied at 23rd for "Most Innovative Schools". In the 2022 Forbes college rankings, Bowdoin was ranked 48th overall among 498 universities, liberal arts colleges, and service academies and 7th among private liberal arts colleges. Bowdoin College

14396-458: Was teaching at the college, and Brigadier General (and Brevet Major General ) Joshua Chamberlain , a Bowdoin alumnus and professor, was present at the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in 1865. Chamberlain, a Medal of Honor recipient who later served as governor of Maine , adjutant-general of Maine, and president of Bowdoin, fought at Gettysburg , where he

14518-436: Was the editor at the time. Longfellow did not respond publicly but, after Poe's death, he wrote: "The harshness of his criticisms I have never attributed to anything but the irritation of a sensitive nature chafed by some indefinite sense of wrong". Margaret Fuller judged Longfellow "artificial and imitative" and lacking force. Poet Walt Whitman considered him an imitator of European forms, but he praised his ability to reach

14640-492: Was too sentimental. Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, to Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah (Wadsworth) Longfellow in Portland, Maine , then a district of Massachusetts . Although he was born at the now-demolished 159–161 Fore Street , he grew up in what is now known as the Wadsworth-Longfellow House on Congress Street . His father was a lawyer, and his maternal grandfather was Peleg Wadsworth ,

14762-439: Was unable to attend her funeral. His facial injuries led him to stop shaving, and he wore a beard from then on which became his trademark. Longfellow was devastated by Frances's death and never fully recovered; he occasionally resorted to laudanum and ether to deal with his grief. He worried that he would go insane, begging "not to be sent to an asylum" and noting that he was "inwardly bleeding to death". He expressed his grief in

14884-442: Was written for his best friend, Charles Sumner , an activist abolitionist politician with whom he would continue to share common cause on the issues of slavery and the Union. "Paul Revere's Ride" was published in the January 1861, issue of The Atlantic magazine on December 20, 1860, just as South Carolina became the first state to secede from the United States . The poem was meant to appeal to Northerners' sense of urgency and, as

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