Longfellow vs. Whitman

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807. He was a well known American poet and educator. He grew up in Portland, Maine where he attended a private school. There, he studied hard and was very intrigued with learning. His mother, Zilpah, was the first to influence her son to pursue reading and poetry. At the age of 15, Longfellow attended Bowdoin College. He continued his interest of learning while at college. After graduating college he then began touring Europe. Shortly after returning back to America, he started teaching at his formal school, Bowdoin College. A few short years later he married Mary Storer Potter. While the two were living abroad, Mary had a terrible miscarriage and she did not survive. That is when Longfellow's poetry really took off. He began writing nonstop because he was so miserable and heartbroken from the death of his beloved wife. After a couple years later he remarried to a woman named Frances Appleton, Franny for short. Together the couple had six children. Longfellow eventually died from the comfort of his own home on March 24, 1882 from peritonitis.

Walt Whitman:
Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in West Hills, New York. Just like Longfellow, Whitman is a popular American poet from the 1800s. He grew up in a large family that was once wealthy. By the time he was a child, they were forced to sell much of their land due to money issues. Whitman, with influence from his parents, was greatly inspired by America's history and it's great leaders. When Whitman was 11, once again due to money problems, he was pulled out of school and forced to work in order to provide food for his family. He then started a job in the printing business. By the age of 17, Whitman then switched his career to teaching. After about 5 years of that job, he went down the path of journalism. He became the editor of a few newspapers before he eventually started his own newspaper. Whitman had a very strong opinion of slavery and worried about the impacts slavery would have on the country. In 1855, he published a book of traditional poetry. When the Civil War came, Whitman volunteered in Washington and made numerous hospital visits. That only inspired his poetry even more. Whitman died not terribly long after the Civil War on March 26, 1892.

Work History:
Longfellow was always striving to learn more and more. His passion for learning grew when he was studying at Bowdoin College. He liked the school so much that he then went back there a few years later to become a teacher. He also was inspired to learn when he was touring Europe. It was because of this that he became so interested in poetry. With poetry, there are various styles and an endless amount of subjects to write about. Poetry seemed like the perfect calling for Longfellow.

Work History:
Whitman had many different jobs while he was growing up. All of which included some sort of learning and using his brain. Whitman's first collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, ultimately began his poetry career. It was this short book that got his name out there and people started being interested in his works. Whitman also had many inspiring topics to write about. Everything from his rough and poor childhood to volunteering during the Civil War. The events in Whitman's life furthered his passion for poetry.

Similarities and Differences:
From my perspective, Longfellow and Whitman appear to be very similar. They both loved to learn and even at one point in their life had a job as a teacher. They also lived around the same time period and not that far from each other. They also both had some tragedies and hard times in their life. They expressed these tough events through their poetry. For example, Longfellow wrote about the death of his wife and Whitman would write about the troublesome times and people of the Civil War. However, there are also some slight differences between the two poets. Longfellow had more of a priveleged childhood while Whitman had to work hard to provide for his family. Along the same lines, Longfellow was able to go to the college of his choice and even spend time touring Europe. Whitman, on the other hand, had to have many jobs while he was growing up and learned something different from each of those jobs. But even saying this, they were both outstanding poets and are still inspiring poetry today.