Fireside Poets

Fireside Poets Definition

The Fireside Poets consists of a group of five poets who gained popularity during the Romantic Period. The poets commonly referred to as Fireside Poets are:

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)

• Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894)

• William Cullen Bryant (1794 - 1878)

• John Greenleaf Whittier (1807 - 1892)

• James Russell Lowell (1819 - 1891)

This group of individuals was the first group of American writers to gain the type of notoriety and celebrity that rivaled the English poets and writers in either country. They were well-respected because of their academic successes, scholarship, and enchanting rhymes. They preferred writing in conventional or traditional forms, which lent their work to easy memorization.

That, coupled with subject matter that was often grounded in myth, history, and patriotism also contributed to their other name, “The Schoolroom Poets,” as many school-age children were required to study and memorize their works. Their often intensely didactic work typically used American legends and scenes from familiar American life, which helped audiences both young and old relate to the poetry.

Fireside Poets and Romanticism

The Fireside Poets expressed an emphasis on the importance of the individual's emotion and imagination, and revealed an interest in nature. These traits, part of the ideals of the Romantic movement, helped to shape the American identity. Because the Fireside Poets were equally welcomed in both the academic and home setting, their writing was highly influential during a time when America, a new nation, was yearning for understanding, belonging, and a sense of self. By emphasizing the importance of individual emotions, a common link to nature, and ideas of nationalism, the Fireside Poets helped define the American national identity.

Fireside Poets Characteristics

The Fireside Poets wrote in ways that helped to join the reading community and spoke to both intellectuals and the everyday public. Their writing and work served as a link between the past and present, garnering them acclaim and respect from their contemporaries and admiration from future poets. Their style was respected enough to be studied in schools, welcomed by the literary community, and equally embraced in the home. Some defining characteristics of poetry written by the Fireside Poets include:

• Use of standard and traditional poetic forms

• Relatable themes

• Easy to read

• Standard rhyme schemes

• Consistent use of metrical patterns

• Long narrative poems

• Themes of nature, myth, social issues, daily domestic life, and love

Importance of the Fireside Poets

The Fireside Poets were readily recognized during their time and highly celebrated for their contributions to literature. Here are some important facts to know about each.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is one of the more well-known and widely read American poets of the 19th century. His notable works include “Song of Hiawatha” (1855) and “Paul Revere’s Ride” (1861). These widely anthologized poems are a favorite for elementary-aged children. They memorialize important events and figures in American history and have rhythmic meter and rhyme.

Longfellow was an academic, and his translation of Dante Alighieri's Inferno from Italian to English is still read today. Longfellow is the first of only two American poets to have been celebrated and honored with a bust in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner. The other poet honored in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner is T.S. Eliot.

Fig. 1 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow always donned a beard.

William Cullen Bryant

William Cullen Bryant is best known for his poem “Thanatopsis” (1817), which he wrote as a teenager. He was a lawyer by trade and editor of the New York Evening Post. His writing was infused with respect and revere for nature. Bryant also let a very political life, was an avid supporter of President Lincoln, and a founding member of the Republican Party.

James Russell Lowell

James Russell Lowell was born to a prominent family and led his life as an active abolitionist, fighting for the rights of slaves in an effort to end the institution of slavery. His poem “A Fable of Critics” (1848) was a satire drawing a critical eye at some of the early American writers and their works. In it, the Roman god of poetry, Apollo, asks a critic about some prominent American poets and their contributions to the canon of American literature. The critic reviews prominent literary figures, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Cullen Bryant, and Lowell. One of many in a family of poets, he is the ancestor of poets Amy Lowell (1874-1925) and Robert Lowell (1917-1977).

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes was a poet but also a prominent figure in the medical community. Holmes was an American physician who founded the American Medical Association and invented the term “anesthesia.” He was a proponent of gender equality and helped facilitate the admittance of women into medical school at Harvard University. Known for writing between seeing patients, he penned many memorable short poems such as “The Chambered Nautilus” (1859), first published in The Atlantic Monthly, which Holmes founded along with the likes of Francis H. Underwood, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Oliver Wendell Holmes is the father of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

John Greenleaf Whittier

Like other poets of his time, John Greenleaf Whittier could not make a livable income on writing alone. He was a cobbler and teacher by trade. Whittier is best known for his poem “Snow-Bound” (1866). It is a memorable poem capturing a day in his boyhood as a Massachusetts Quaker when his family gathered around the hearth at home during a snowstorm. Like Lowell, Whittier was active in the anti-slavery movement. He facilitated the underground railroad and came to be known as “the slave’s poet.”

Original Fireside Themes

The Fireside Poets wrote on themes dealing with life, death, nature, and American life. Their easy-to-read language and easily remembered rhymes helped them highlight important social and political issues of their time. Although not exclusive to these writers alone, the following themes are commonly found in poems written by the five Fireside Poets.

Social issues

The Fireside Poets surfaced important social issues and took on causes within their poetry. For example, their interest in the abolition of slavery and equality brought the issue to the forefront of society and into the homes of the public. This paved the way for future writers to use poetry as a vehicle for social awareness and change.

Nature, Life, and Death

Like other Romantics, the Fireside Poets used nature as an inspiration in their writing. Their writing included vivid visual imagery, often glorified nature, and dealt with death. “The Last Leaf” (1886) by Oliver Wendell Holmes explores the unavoidable strains time puts on life and the body. It is about an old man who is the last of his generation. He has outlived his contemporaries and is in solitude. The man was once stout, young, and attractive. However, he now stumbles around with a cane and is a shadow of his former days.

Fig. 1 - Nature was a common theme for the Fireside Poets.

Love

The Fireside Poets explored love within their poetry. Longfellow’s sonnet “The Cross of Snow” was written 18 years after his wife’s unfortunate death. In it, he explores the life he has had after her death and how he longs for her. He calls her a “gentle face” as he sits “in the room she died” (line 5). Her absence has all but made his life stand still; he notes in the last line of the poem that seasons are “changeless since the day she died” (line 14).