28 pages • 56 minutes read
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Maidenhood” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1842)
The speaker in this short poem addresses a young woman and tries to encourage her, saying that even though life has many pitfalls, she must patiently endure whatever sorrow comes her way. Like Evangeline, the young woman is presented as bright and filled with light (“Thou whose locks outshine the sun”) and the speaker’s advice, “And that smile, like sunshine, / dart into many a sunless heart, / For a smile of God thou art” also puts in mind Evangeline, with her many years of service to others as a Sister of Mercy.
“The Rainy Day” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1842)
Like Evangeline’s mentors, but without the spiritual dimension, the speaker of this short lyric poem consoles a dispirited young person by telling him or her that every life must experience some sorrow, but “Behind the clouds is the sun still shining.”
“The Village Blacksmith” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1840)
The description of the blacksmith puts in mind the descriptions of Basil the blacksmith in Evangeline. The poem is simple in thought and structure. It consists of eight six-line stanzas and emphasizes the blacksmith’s strength and the hard work he performs each day, which inspire the speaker.
“Santa Filomena” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1857)
Longfellow wrote this poem about Florence Nightingale when he heard about the work Nightingale performed in a British military hospital at Constantinople during the Crimean War (1854-56). Nightingale brought attention to the appalling conditions in the hospital, and her knowledge of hygiene and her training of others contributed to a marked fall in the death rate. Longfellow’s phrase, “lady with a lamp” became frequently attached to her name. The last two lines of the poem might also be seen as reminiscent of the heroism and service of Evangeline: “A lady with a lamp shall stand / In the great history of the land, / A noble type of good, / Heroic womanhood.”
Further Literary Resources
“Longfellow’s Evangeline: The Birth and Acceptance of a Legend” by Naomi Griffiths (1982)
This is a scholarly article on Evangeline. For the general reader, the first part, in which Griffiths discusses the themes and style of the poem, may be of more interest than later sections in which Griffiths discusses Longfellow’s sources and the reception of the work by Acadians in the late 19th century.
The Long Life of Evangeline: A History of the Longfellow Poem in Print, in Adaptation and in Popular Culture by Ron McFarland (2010)
McFarland discusses the poem’s favorable early reception and its continuing popularity, as well offering an interpretation of the poem. In the preface, McFarland mentions that Evangeline lost popularity during the second-wave feminist movement that began in the early 1960s and discusses how it might be read as an antifeminist text.
“A New Look at Longfellow’s ‘Evangeline’” by Louis Foley (1967)
Foley argues that far from being a conservative writer, Longfellow showed great originality; he was a “daring innovator.” He was the first American poet to write successful long poems, and his choice of meter for Evangeline was highly original, bearing in mind that traditionally, long poems in English were written in iambic pentameter.
Listen to Poem
This is an audio recording of Evangeline in its entirety, read by Leonard Wilson. Running time is one hour forty-nine minutes.
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Related Titles
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
