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This is a prose introduction by Longfellow, not a poem, but rather the historical preface he created to set the stage for his epic poem *Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie*. It recounts the story of the Acadian people—French settlers in present-d
This text provides geographical footnotes from Longfellow's epic poem *Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie* (1847). It highlights real locations in Louisiana where Acadian exiles settled after being forced from Nova Scotia by the British in 1755.
A Jacobite soldier, exiled in France after the devastating loss at Culloden in 1746, longs for his home in Northumberland. He gazes at the French countryside, which he finds beautiful yet entirely foreign — the rivers, hills, and winds don’
This is the opening of Longfellow's epic poem *Evangeline*, which narrates the tale of Acadian settlers who were forcibly taken from their homes in Nova Scotia by the British in 1755. In these initial stanzas, Longfellow paints a picture of
This poem is Longfellow's English translation of two elegies written by the Roman poet Ovid, who was exiled by Emperor Augustus to Tomis—a distant, icy outpost on the Black Sea. In the first elegy, Ovid paints a vivid picture of the harsh w
This section of Longfellow's *Evangeline* depicts the brutal removal of the Acadian people from their village of Grand-Pré by British soldiers. Families are ripped apart, homes are set ablaze, and Evangeline witnesses her father die on the
In 1492, Spain expelled its Jewish population through the Alhambra Decree, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee without a destination. Emma Lazarus reflects on that year as a coin with two sides: one side mourning the expulsion while the o
A Jacobite soldier, locked away after the failed 1715 uprising, bids farewell to the woman he loves on the eve of his execution. He urges her not to mourn over lost territories or failed ideals, stressing that none of that compares to the p
This brief prose-poem fragment by James Russell Lowell reflects on the word "desolate," exploring its connection to the historical reality of leprosy — a disease that isolated its victims completely from society. Lowell references the bibli
A young English drummer boy named "Hodge," a common name for a country worker, dies during the Boer War and is laid to rest in the South African veld, far from his homeland. Hardy laments that this everyday soldier lacks a proper grave or c
Longfellow's "Frithiof's Farewell" translates a poignant moment from the Swedish epic *Frithiofs saga*, where the hero Frithiof bids farewell to his cherished homeland and the woman he loves before heading into exile. The poem vividly conve
A small group of Jewish survivors approaches the warrior Judas Maccabaeus, introducing themselves as outcasts and fugitives who have escaped a desecrated Jerusalem to avoid death. In just four lines, Longfellow captures a moment of urgent s
This is a fragment from Shelley's unfinished verse drama about figures from the English Civil War—Hampden, Pym, Cromwell, and others—who choose to sail to America rather than endure tyranny. Hampden bids farewell to England, filled with bot
Marenghi is an unfinished poem by Shelley that tells the story of a real Italian patriot, Castruccio Castracani's enemy, reimagined as a solitary freedom fighter who faces betrayal from his own people and is driven into exile. The poem hono
This brief poem is Longfellow's loose translation of the opening lines from Virgil's *Eclogue I*, where the shepherd Meliboeus speaks to his friend Tityrus. Meliboeus faces the heartache of being forced from his homeland, while Tityrus enjo
This is the opening line of Longfellow's epic poem *Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie* (1847), written in dactylic hexameter — the same meter that Homer used in his works. The line paints a picture of the ancient forests of Acadia (Nova Scotia),
This is the second part of Longfellow's epic poem *Evangeline*, which tells the story of an Acadian heroine wandering across North America in search of her lost love, Gabriel, after their people were forced from their homeland. She journeys
This brief excerpt is an epigraph that Longfellow included in *Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie* (1847). It comes from an actual petition written by Acadian exiles who found themselves in Pennsylvania. The text conveys, in straightforward burea
This is the opening section of Longfellow's epic poem *Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie* (1847), which introduces a story about the Acadian people's forced removal from their homeland in Nova Scotia. With just one word — "Acadia" — Longfellow e
This part of Longfellow's *Evangeline* begins with a cheerful betrothal feast in the Acadian village of Grand-Pré, only to have that joy crushed when British soldiers force the men into the church and declare that the whole community is bei
This brief poem by Longfellow functions as an epigraph — a passage taken from an actual petition that Acadian exiles sent to the British king following their forced removal from Nova Scotia in 1755. Longfellow connects it to the biblical ta
Two lovers run away together into the night, fueled by danger and united by their devotion. Shelley conveys the intense urgency of their escape while also highlighting the tenderness found in their shared risk. The poem serves as a powerful
Longfellow visits the old Jewish cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island, using it as a starting point to reflect on the entire history of Jewish suffering and resilience in Europe. He traces the persecution — the ghettos, the expulsions, the hat
Longfellow's *Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie* (1847) tells the story of a young Acadian woman named Evangeline Bellefontaine who searches for her fiancé, Gabriel. They were separated when the British expelled the French-speaking Acadians from
A statue stands at the entrance to America, speaking not as a conqueror but as a mother welcoming the world's most desperate people. Emma Lazarus gives the Statue of Liberty a voice that turns away from Old World pride and instead offers re