Henry Wadsworth Longefellow and "My Lost Youth"

Longfellow’s Legendary Anecdotes Henry Wadsworth Longfellow definitely had some significant ancestry, as his grandmother was a brigadier general of militia in the Revolutionary War, and soon after, became a congressman. His forefathers had all been named Stephen, each with increasingly impressive bouts of success. The first Stephen became a blacksmith, then the second Stephen in line became a Harvard graduate and schoolmaster, followed by the third, who was a legislator, in addition to becoming a senator and judge. Once this tradition reached Henry’s immediate family, however, the fortuitous name was given to Henry’s older brother. This is not to say, that his humble beginning in Portland, Maine, as one of seven children, was not revealing of Henry’s soon to be fame. As a child, there was no tribulation in teaching him Latin grammar. Just as easy was learning how to read, spell, and even multiply, all occurring before Henry’s sixth birthday! After entering Harvard University at a later interval in his life, Henry soon thereafter attempted and completed a peregrination of Germany, Holland, Sweden, England, Denmark, and Switzerland. At the time, Henry’s talents lied in his flute, where he enjoyed making himself as well as others happy, simply through the music produced from the instrument. Not long after, his wife, Mary Stotter Potter, died in Rotterdam, in the South Holland province of the Netherlands. This may very well be where Longfellow drew his love for poetry, for little time had elapsed since Mary had died when Henry released his first book of poems, Voices of the Night.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “My Lost Youth” was perhaps primarily a tribute to his early years spent in his native city of Portland, Maine. He projects an effective use of a Lapland song at the end of each stanza, as he writes, “A boy’s will is the wind’s will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long, thoughts.” One could certainly attribute these lines and imagery to ascertain that