Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie is an epic poem by 19th-century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The first epic by an American author, it was published in 1847 and immediately became extremely popular. It went through five editions within a year of publication and sold more than 30,000 copies in a decade, a very large number for the time. The story is based on a legend, which is itself based on a real event: the forced removal by the British of the Acadian people from Nova Scotia, Canada, which began in 1755. The popularity of Evangeline continued for a hundred years or so, and it was translated into 130 languages. In the second half of the 20th century, the poem’s popularity declined, in part due to changing social ideals regarding the role of women. Readers can still enjoy it, however, for its beautiful descriptions of nature in colonial America and its long-suffering, patient, devoted heroine Evangeline, who for many years searches for her husband, Gabriel, following their cruel separation during the deportation.

Poet Biography

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine (which was then part of Massachusetts) on February 27, 1807. He attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick and then studied modern languages for three years in Europe before returning to Bowdoin in 1829 to teach.