The Project Gutenberg EBook of Evangeline, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Title: Evangeline with Notes and Plan of Study

Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Annotator: W. F. Conover

Editor: W. F. Conover

Release Date: March 16, 2005 [EBook #15390]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EVANGELINE ***

Produced by John Hagerson, Kevin Handy, S.R.Ellison and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Illustration: EVANGELINE.]

EVANGELINE

A TALE OF ACADIE

BY

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Edited with Introduction, Notes and a Plan of Study

BY

W.F. CONOVER.

A. FLANAGAN CO., PUBLISHERS, CHICAGO

Copyright 1899 by W.F. CONOVER

NOTE.

The distinctive feature of this edition of Evangeline is the PLAN OF STUDY which forms the latter part of the volume.

This Plan for the study of "Evangeline" is the outgrowth of several years' teaching of this delightful poem. It has proved successful in securing very satisfactory work from classes varying greatly in ability. It has resulted, in a considerable majority of cases, in (1) in awakening an interest in and a love for good literature; (2) opening up the field of literature in a new way, and showing that much wealth may be gotten by digging below the surface; (3) developing a considerable power of discrimination; (4) enlarging the pupil's working vocabulary. See "Argument" on page 113.

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS.

NOTE Page 5

INTRODUCTION. THE AUTHOR 7 THE POEM 9 ACADIA AND THE ACADIANS 12

EVANGELINE: A TALE OF ACADIE. PART THE FIRST 20 PART THE SECOND 60

NOTES ON EVANGELINE. PART ONE 107 PART TWO 110

A PLAN OF STUDY. PART I 119 PART II 124 PART III 142

INTRODUCTION.

THE AUTHOR.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, February 27, 1807. His father and mother were of English stock, his mother being a descendant of "John Alden and Priscilla." Stephen Longfellow, his father, was a lawyer and statesman. Henry's school life began at the age of three. When he was six years old he could read, spell and multiply, and at the age of seven was half way through his Latin grammar. He early showed a taste for reading, and read not only his father's small stock of books, but frequented the Portland Library and book stores. "The Battle of Lovell's Pond" was his first poem, written when he was thirteen. He entered Bowdoin College at the age of fourteen, graduating in 1825. During the latter part of his student life there he began to show a considerable literary bent. Shortly after graduating from Bowdoin, Longfellow was elected Professor of Modern Languages in that institution. Before entering upon his work, he spent three years in study and travel in Europe, returning to America in 1829. For five and one-half years he taught in Bowdoin, during which time he began serious work as an author. In 1834, Harvard called him to the chair of Modern Languages. He again made a trip to Europe for further study. Longfellow was connected with Harvard for nineteen years, resigning his position in 1854 to devote his whole time to literature.

His two principal prose works are "Outre Mer" and "Hyperion." The latter was followed by a volume of poems entitled "Voices of the Night." "Ballads and Other Poems" appeared in 1841, and showed much more talent. "Evangeline" was written in 1847; "Hiawatha" in 1855, and the "Courtship of Miles Standish" in 1857. "Evangeline" and "Hiawatha" are considered the best of his longer poems. "The Building of the Ship" and "Excelsior" are perhaps the best known of his shorter poems.

Longfellow died at Cambridge in 1882.

THE POEM.

"Evangeline" is considered Longfellow's masterpiece among his longer poems. It is said to have been the author's favorite. It has a universal popularity, having been translated into many languages.

E.C. Stedman styles it the "Flower of American Idyls."

"Evangeline" is a Narrative poem, since it tells a story. Some of the world's greatest poems have been of this kind, notably the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" of Homer, and the "Aeneid," of Virgil. It may be also classified as an Idyl, which is a simple, pastoral poem of no great length.

Poetry has been defined as "impassioned expression in verse or metrical form." All modern English poetry has metre, and much of it rhyme. By metre is meant a regular recurrence of accented syllables among unaccented syllables. "Evangeline" is written in what is called hexameter, having six accents to the line. An accented syllable is followed by one or two unaccented. A line must begin with an accented syllable, the last accent but one be followed by two unaccented syllables, and the last by one. Representing an accented syllable by O and an unaccented syllable by a -, the first line of the poem would be as follows:

  O - - O - - O - - O - - O - - O -
This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks,

    "The measure lends itself easily to the lingering melancholy which
    marks a greater part of the poem."

    "In reading there should be a gentle labor of the former half of the
    line and gentle acceleration of the latter half."—Scudder.

[Illustration: NOVA SCOTIA AND VICINITY.]

ACADIA AND THE ACADIANS.

Acadia, now known as Nova Scotia, was settled by the French in 1607. Many of the colonists settled in the fertile region about the Bay of Minas, an arm of the Bay of Fundy. One of these settlements was called Grand Pre, meaning Great Meadow. The people were industrious and thrifty and they soon attained a considerable prosperity.

During the early period of American History, France and England were almost continually at war with one another, and in these wars the colonists were concerned. At the close of what is known as Queen Anne's war, in 1713, France ceded Acadia to the English, and it has since remained in their possession. Some thirty-five years passed before an English settlement was made at Halifax, the Acadians in the meantime remaining in undisturbed possession of the country. Soon after the settlement of Halifax trouble began between the rival colonists.