The Song of Hiawatha

The Song of Hiawatha is an epic poem written in 1855 by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It draws on a blend of Indigenous and Western influences to create a saga following a mythic Ojibwe hero. Though poorly received on its initial publication, the epic has become a beloved story studied worldwide. Today, many of the initial critiques—which challenged the elevation of a dying culture—have become inverted, instead challenging the romanticization of harmful cultural stereotypes and religious propaganda.

In spite of its debated flaws, however, The Song of Hiawatha holds an essential place in the American literary canon.

Poet Biography

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was an American poet best known for his historical poem “Paul Revere's Ride” and the epics The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline, as well as his translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. He was born in Portland, Maine (then Massachusetts), publishing his first work, the patriotic historical poem “The Battle of Lovell's Pond,” at age 13. Longfellow attended Bowdoin College, where he began a lifelong friendship with fellow writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, and published several dozen poems.

After graduation, Longfellow travelled throughout Europe and learned French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Portuguese. He returned to his alma mater to teach and continued pursuing his career as a writer, releasing his first full-length work, Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea, in 1835. In that same year, his first wife, Mary, died of complications from a miscarriage. The following year, he took up a professorship at Harvard. In 1839 Longfellow published his first full-length collection of poetry, Voices of the Night.

Over the next several years, Longfellow courted his future second wife, Frances Appleton, who agreed to marry him in 1843; however, 18 years later, after their six children were born, Frances’ dress caught fire. When Longfellow attempted to help, they were both badly burned. Frances died of her injuries, while Longfellow sustained lifelong scars and was debilitated by grief for the rest of his life.

Longfellow spent several years perfecting his translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, which was published in three volumes in 1867. In 1874 he sold his poem “The Hanging of the Crane” to the New York Ledger for $3,000, the highest known price to ever be paid for a poetic work at that time. Longfellow died from peritonitis in 1882. He remains a recognized part of the American literary canon, celebrated by a commemorative bust in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey and a statue in Washington, DC.

Poem Text

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Song of Hiawatha. 1855. Maine Historical Society website.