Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1848– · USA · Romantic
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was one of America's most celebrated poets and educators who made significant contributions to Christian hymnody despite his primary fame in secular literature. Though raised in the Unitarian tradition, his Christian faith informed much of his poetic work, and he authored and translated several hymns and religious poems that were incorporated into American Protestant worship. His scholarly approach to poetry and translation, combined with his position as a Harvard University professor, gave his religious verse considerable influence in nineteenth-century American churches. Longfellow's hymnic poetry, while not his primary focus, reflected the intellectual Protestant traditions of his era and contributed to the broader literary canon of American Christian verse during the Romantic period.