Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine on February 27, 1807. He was an influential American poet. Many thought that he was pretty good at it, too. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. said that he was the best American poet. Longfellow attended the Portland Academy from 1813 up until 1821. His first poem was publised by the Portland Gazette in 1820. Longfellow graduated from Bowdoin college as fourth in his class in 1825. In 1836, he began to travel to many different countries in Europe. This impacted his life and the topics he chose to write about. He married Mary Storer Potter in 1831. He worked at Bowdoin College with many different roles. A tragedy hit when his wife died during childbirth. He went back to Europe and ended up meeting his second wife, Frances Elizabeth Appleton. Longfellow and his wife returned to America in 1836. He was offered a job at Harvard and accepted. Many people thought that he was very good at what he did. He published his Poems for Slavery in 1842. Longfellow later resigned from this position in 1854. He did this so he could spend more time writing his poetry. In 1860, he worte Paul Rever's Ride. The following year, 1861, his wife died because her dress caught on fire as she was trying to melt sealing wax. Longfellow traveled to Europe for the last time in 1868. He was even known by celebrities. He was honored with L.L.D. by Cambridge and D.C.L. by Oxford. He died in 1882.
Walt Whitman was born in Long Island, New York on May 31, 1819. He began to work as a printer at the age of 12 in New Your City. But tragedy struck and it later burned down. He became a teacher at the age of 17! That is the age of a lot of high school students in our school right now. He was even younger than some of us here. He taught until he became a journalist in 1841. Whitman became the editor of the New Orleans Crescent in 1848. He released his first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855. Once the Civil War came around, he would go around and share his poetry with the wounded soldiers. His own brother was wounded in December of 1862. Whitman actually ended up working in the hospital for 11 years. He got fired from his postion as clerk because the Secretary of the Interior, James Harlan, was offended by his writing of Leaves of Grass. He later visited his dying mother. While he was there, he had a stroke and had to stay there. He lived with his brother until another edition of Leaves of Grass came out. That allowed him to afford a home of his own. He died on March 26, 1892.
Longfellow came out with many different poems. The first poem written by him was The Battle of Lovell's Pond. But his first two major poems were Voices of the Night and Ballads and Other Poems. He also wrote poems like Paul Revere's Ride, Evangaline, and The Song if Hiawatha. These were all historical poems that showed Americans how America actually came to be. They can explain some background information and events that took place. This allowed him to make a big impact on the popular culture of America.
Walt Whitman's main contributions to his literature were his many editions of Leaves of Grass. His writing was "indecent" in the eyes of the public. They thought it was too sexual and inappropriate for society. He had many critics because of his publication. Although, some really did enjoy it. Emerson actually loved it! Even with this, his publication did not do too well. The fourth editions of Leaves of Grass had many revisions based upon the Civil War and racial issues in America. Later he finally completed his seventh edition. This was the final revision. It sold over 6,000 copies. It was finally a success. He completed what he wanted to complete. This showed people that you need to always push forward with your dreams ignore the critics in your life.
I personally don't see many similarities between these two poets other than a few minor ones. First of all, they are both poets. They are dedicated to their work and love it. The two men were also teachers at certain points of their lives. They each had to deal with different tragedies throughout their life. Longfellow dealt with the loss of two wives, and Whitman dealt with a dying mother. These are hard things to go through. Now, I definitely see many differenced between the two men. Longfellow had married two women in his lifetime, and Whitman hadn't even been known to have a love affair. Which is very ironic considering the fact that he wrote about sexual things. Longfellow had a lot of success with his poetry. He even set a record at the time for making $3,000 from publicatin. Whitman had no such luck. He struggled to get by. Much of his poetry was rejected by society. The two men also wrote about different things. Longfellow was all about the culture of America. He would write about events that happened to give a mythological side to our culture. Whitman wrote about "unethical" and "morally wrong" subjects. This definitely caused some trouble for him.
