Literary History

The Fireside Poets

Overview
The Fireside Poets were a group of popular American writers who emerged in the mid-nineteenth century. They may have been called the “Fireside Poets” because families often read poems and stories by the fireside during this era.

This poetry was distinguished by its conventional use of rhyme, strict metric cadence, and vivid descriptions of contemporary life. These poets also took more liberal stances on the political issues of the day.

William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell were the most prominent of the Fireside Poets. They were well known for their long, narrative poems, especially Whittier’s Snow-Bound and Longfellow’s Evangeline. But Longfellow is perhaps best known for his poem “Paul Revere’s Ride”:
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

Bryant, the oldest poet in this group, was influenced by English poets such as William Wordsworth. Bryant was a pioneer in that he depicted the U.S. landscape in his poetry. Whittier, on the other hand, was a devoted abolitionist, and much of his poetry reflected his personal beliefs. Lowell also objected to slavery, as well as the war in Mexico. In 1857 Lowell became the first editor of the Atlantic Monthly, a magazine that is still published today under the name The Atlantic.

Oliver Wendell Holmes’s poem “Old Ironsides,” a nickname for the USS Constitution, railed against the destruction of this American warship. His poem helped garner public support to save it. Poets like Holmes were popular because their works spoke to ordinary, hardworking people. These American poets also were considered the equals of famous British poets of the time, which boosted U.S. civic pride even further.

Bibliography
Longfellow, Henry W. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Selected Poems. New York: Gramercy, 1992. Contains many of Longfellow’s poems, including Evangeline and “Paul Revere’s Ride.”

Whittier, John Greenleaf. John Greenleaf Whittier: Selected Poems. New York: Library of America, 2004. Read Whittier’s well-known Snow-Bound, example of long verse.

McClatchy, J. D., ed. Poets of the Civil War. New York: Library of America, 2005. Read some of the most famous poems from this era, from authors such as Whittier, Holmes, Longfellow, Bryant, and more.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell. The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes. New York: Kessinger Publishing, 2005. This collection of Holmes’s poetry includes “Old Ironsides.”

Web links
poets.org: A Brief Guide to the Fireside Poets
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5654
Read a brief history of the Fireside Poets, and link to individual biographies and poems of the most notable poets from this group.

Making of America
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/
By clicking on the “Browse” icon, you can read the magazines in which poets and writers were published during this era. This impressive Journal Collection features every issue of the Atlantic Monthly, Scribner’s Magazine, Scientific American, and many more.

USS Constitution
http://www.ussconstitution.navy.mil/
Read about the warship that inspired Oliver Wendell Holmes’s epic poem, “Old Ironsides.” Take a virtual tour of the ship, which is currently docked at Flagship Wharf in Charlestown, Massachusetts, and meets its current crew.