Song of Hiawatha Resources

Since Longfellow was a proud native of Maine, it makes sense that the state's historical society would have a page dedicated to the guy.

They're not exactly the Maine Historical Society, but the folks at Poets.org decided to honor Longfellow with his own page too.

The portrait alone is worth a visit to Longfellow on this page.

It's short and there isn't a ton of dialogue, but this video will help give you a sense of the landscape and characters Longfellow is talking about in The Song of Hiawatha.

Here's a cartoon from 1937 that pretty much shows what white Americans thought about Native Americans at the time. You can even think of '37 as a midway point between the publication of "Hiawatha" (1855) and today.

It's not exactly loyal to the poem. But then again, the poem isn't loyal to the original legends, either.

Yup, you've got the whole thing right here.

Here's a shorter audio clip just to give you a taste.

Check out this audio poem to get a sense of some of the other stuff Longfellow wrote.

It's tough to tell just how old Henry is in this photo, but we can sure say it's younger than he looks in some of his other portraits.

A few more years and a few more tears have gotten to this face…

Yup, the American Government liked Longfellow so much they slapped him on a stamp.

This article can give you a solid idea of what Native American words Longfellow uses in The Song of Hiawatha and how accurate he is in using them.

This article takes a look at some of the specific geographical landmarks that helped inspire Longfellow's poem.

For a great recent bio of Longfellow, be sure to check out this book.

You know, in case the first four volumes weren't enough.

It's true that Longfellow has gone down a lot in popularity since his time. But the author of this book thinks it's high time to give his career a second thought.

This is the most recent revisitation of Hiawatha that you're likely to find and it's worth checking out.

Here's an animated version of the Hiawatha legend.