Longfellow: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)

Longfellow: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)

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Editorial Reviews

A selection of Longfellow's poetry from the 19th century. Revealing differing tones, styles and themes, these works provide a picture of Longfellow's sense of himself, and his understanding of the true state of the times in which he lived.

Customer Reviews

Longfellow

Reviewed by Mr. T. W. R. Neill, 2009-08-23

I wanted a book of Longfellow poems and this is the best compact miscellany on the market

Where have you gone, Mr. Longfellow?

Reviewed by Shalom Freedman, 2005-02-07

Longellow is the poet of the American public school. 'Evangeline' 'The Courtship of Miles Standish' 'Paul Revere's Ride' ' The Village Blacksmith' ' 'A Psalm of life' and others. His reputation in the nineteenth century was great and overwhelming. Yet his reputation in the realm of poetry today is not with those artists of the canon, Tennyson and Browning in England, and Whitman and Dickinson in the United States. Perhaps it is because his poems are taken to be not inventive enough linguistically. Perhaps it is because the very thing many have praised him for his musicality seems today to be less than the irregular music of a Hopkins or Dylan Thomas.
In any case in Longfellow one will find sound solid lines, a certain moral stance , a kind of American integrity. For someone like myself reading Longfellow is a nostalgic trip and a new perspective on what I read so long ago. He has much to give even if it is not quite at the highest poetic level.

you want it you got it

Reviewed by john and nancy nagle, 2000-01-26

I love this book it is something that men and women would enjoy. I have tons of information on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow because our house is a remake of his he lived from 1807-1882. If I were you I would buy it I am the biggest fan of his I have every single book of poems,songs,and more on him in paperback and hardcover. Buy it!

The best introduction to one of America's best loved poets.

Reviewed by Frank Beck, 1998-11-09

When I was producing a video biography of Longfellow for Macmillan/McGraw-Hill in 1992, I needed a one-volume selection of Longfellow's poetry, and this book did the job very nicely. It includes Longfellow's best-known poems as well as two others that were never published during the poet's lifetime but must be classed with his finest work. The introduction by Lawrence Buell provides a useful biographical sketch and a thoughtful discussion of why Longfellow--the most famous American of his time--is not more widely read today. Buell's observations may get you thinking about this schoolbook poet in a different way.