Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)

STUDIES - Lehel Vadon: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Hungary

LEHELVADON HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW IN HUNGARY Next to Edgar Allan Poe Longfellow was considered to be the most international poet of nineteenth century America. He was the American epigon of European romantic poetry who planted the seeds of culture in an uncultivated land and during America's adolescence he discovered Europe for the New World. His romantic European style is no ordinary plagiarism as his poetry was born in America but his themes, sentiments and perfection of form remind one of the "Old Continent". He is the first to express patriotic feelings and to perpetuate episodes of American history and the elements of American traditions through the North American landscape. Through Longfellow the American landscape becomes an integral part of world literature not as a romantic oddity but as a dignified, traditional sphere of domestic progress. Although he mainly chose domestic themes, he rejected the label of a true-blue American poet.

1 In his epic poems he described the romantic and legendary episodes of European history integrating the most popular themes and elaborate forms into American literature. Longfellow as the first professional poet of the United States deliberately strove to create traditions. He was a versatile, scholar poet who wanted to write in "an elegant, European influenced American style". 1 "As our national character and world of thought do not differ fundamentally from England, therefore our literature may not differ either." In: Samuel Longfellow: Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1891). 129