Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in 1807 in Portland Maine (then part of Massachusetts) into a privileged background. Studious, he worked hard and grew to love languages as well as poetry from an early age. He travelled extensively in Europe for 3 years, immersing himself in various languages, and became much influenced by its poets. From there he returned to the US and eventually to teach at Harvard. His first major publication of poetry was in 1839. Today he is rightly known as an icon of American Poetry with classics such as "Paul Revere's Ride" and "The Song of Hiawatha". In this collection we bring you further examples of his great talents that read undimmed to this very day. Our readers include John Michael MacDonald, Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe.