Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is buried in
the Mount Auburn Cemetery,
Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA.
(Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell and
Robert Creeley are also buried here.)
Tomb of Longfellow
Following the death of his first wife, Mary Storer Potter in
Rotterdam, Longfellow returned to Cambridge and became a lodger at Craigie House
where he was to live for the rest of his life. The house was later given to him
and his second wife (Francis Appleton) as a wedding present.
In 1861 Francis tragically died after accidentally setting fire
to her dress whilst melting wax to seal envelopes containing cuttings of her childrens' hair. In an attempt to douse the flames Longfellow received serious
burns to his face. This made it difficult for him to shave and explains why
he subsequently wore a beard. |
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Bust of Longfellow
Photograph by Kieran Smith |
Longfellow's gift for
writing accessible poetry with deceptively simple rhymes made him the most popular
poet of his generation second only to Tennyson.
With the publication of The Song of Hiawatha (1858)
Longfellow also became one of the first American writers to embrace native
american themes.
He died on March 24th 1882, after a short illness, just a few
days after he had written his last poem The Bells of San Blas. At his funeral, a passage from The Death of Chibiabos was
read out.
Two years after his death he became the first American poet to
have a bust placed in 'Poets' Corner', Westminster Abbey, London.
His other works include: Evangeline (1849), The Courtship
of Miles Standish (1858), Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863) and
Christus (1872).
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