Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine in 1807. Longfellow became a national literary figure by the time of the 1850's. Henry died in 1882. His writings had to do with European literature and thought. He was a very successful poet.
Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819 in West Hills, New York. He died on March 26, 1892. He is considered one of America's most influential poets. In 1855, he published a collection called Leaves of Grass, which is now a landmark in American poetry. Whitman was the 2nd of 8 children.
Longfellow's poem Voices of the Night brought him popularity. Other poetry works such as The Village Blacksmith, Evangeline, and Hiawatha also helped him become well known. Henry Longfellow's poems were known for there simplicity and gentleness. Walt Whitman is known as the creator of free verse poetry. Whitman did not follow the typical poetry style that was being written during his time. He created his own poetry to accomodate all of the different nationalities and cultures that were in America during his time. He thought that everything was equal to everything, no one or no thing is less or greater than another.
These two poets are similar because they were born around the same time, Longfellow in 1807 and Whitman in 1819. Both of these men were well known and well liked poets during their time. Also, both of them hold places in history for their work. These men had different writing styles. Henry Longfellow wrote with simplicity and gentleness while Walt Whitman wrote in a much different style than any poet at the time. Whitman wrote poems that were "out there" in a sense. Some of Walt's poems included sexual content, which had never been done before. Henry Longfellow would write about life events, especially the deaths of loved ones. Walt Whitman wrote his poetry about democracy as a way of life, the cycle of growth and death, and the beauty of the individual.
