ERAPPA 2009 - Portland - Longfellow Serenade

Longfellow Serenade - Spouse/Guest Local Tour

Tuesday 9:30-11:30
$10.00

Longfellow Serenade: (2 – 3 hours) Enjoy a guided docent tour of the Longfellow House. Within its walls lived three generations of one remarkable family that made significant contributions to the political, literary, and cultural life of New England and the United States. The Wadsworth–Longfellow House is also an important architectural artifact of New England's past. Originally a two–story structure with a pitched roof, it was the first wholly brick dwelling in Portland. Zilpah and Stephen Longfellow (Henry's parents) added a third story in 1815. The only single–family residence to survive downtown Congress Street's change from a mixed commercial and residential neighborhood on the edge of town to an urban business district, it is the oldest standing structure on the Portland peninsula. Furnishings from the three generations illustrate changes in style, technology, and attitude over the 19th century. Peleg and Elizabeth Wadsworth raised ten children in the house before retiring to the family farm in Hiram, Maine, in 1807.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a commanding figure in the cultural life of nineteenth-century America. Born in Portland, Maine, in 1807, he became a national literary figure by the 1850s, and a world- famous personality by the time of his death in 1882.

His poetry has been a continuous presence in our language ever since. He is quoted by merchants and manufacturers on their products, by journalists and preachers in their articles and sermons, and by ordinary men and women in their daily lives. Some of his lines and phrases - "A boy's will is the wind's will," "Ships that pass in the night," "Footprints on the sands of time" - are so well known that they have entered the American language. Today they are often quoted without the speaker even knowing Longfellow penned the words.
A superstar in his time, Longfellow was a traveler, a linguist, and a romantic who identified with the great traditions of European literature and thought. At the same time, he was rooted in American life and history, which charged his imagination with untried themes and made him ambitious for success.

You will also visit the Maine Historical Society’s museum next door to the Longfellow House. For more information on the museum’s current exhibit visit http://www.mainehistory.org/ Lunch is on your own. Tour departs from Holiday Inn By the Bay at 9 AM.