He was born in the city of Portland, Maine, on the 27th of February, 1807, and was the son of the Hon. Stephen Longfellow, a distinguished lawyer of that city.  The house in which he was born was a square wooden structure, built many years before, and large and roomy.  It stood upon the outskirts of the town, on the edge of the sea, and was separated from the water only by a wide street.  From its windows the dreamy boy, who grew up within its walls, could look out upon the dark, mysterious ocean, and, lying awake in his little bed in the long winter nights, he could listen to its sorrowful roar as it broke heavily upon the shore.  That he was keenly alive to the fascination of such close intimacy with the ocean, we have abundant proof in his writings.

He was carefully educated in the best schools of the city, and at the age of fourteen entered Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, where he graduated in his nineteenth year.  He was an industrious student, and stood high in his classes.  He gave brilliant promise of his future eminence as a poet in several productions written during his college days, which were published in a Boston journal called the “United States Literary Gazette.”  Among these were the “Hymn of the Moravian Nuns,” “The Spirit of Poetry,” “Woods in Winter,” and “Sunrise on the Hills.”

Upon leaving college he entered his father’s office, in Portland, with the half-formed design of studying law, which he never carried into execution, as more congenial employment soon presented itself to him.  In 1826 he was appointed Professor of Modern Languages and Literature at Bowdoin College, with the privilege of passing several years abroad for observation and study.  He accepted the appointment with unaffected delight, and promptly went abroad.  He passed his first year in France, studying the language and literature of that country, and the next in Spain, engaged in similar pursuits.  Italy claimed his third year, and Germany his fourth.  He traveled extensively, and made many pleasant acquaintances among the most gifted men and women of the Old World.  Returning home toward the close of 1829, he entered upon the active duties of his professorship, and for five years held this position, winning considerable distinction by his academic labors.

During his professorship our poet married, and the years that followed were very happy and very quiet.  The life he led at Bowdoin was peaceful, and in a measure retired, giving him ample opportunity for study and for laying the sure foundation of his future fame.  During this period of his life he contributed articles to the “North American Review,” and extended his acquaintance gradually among the literary men of New England.  He was fond of recalling the experiences of his life abroad, and being unwilling that they should be lost from his memory, determined to transmit them to paper before they faded quite away.  These sketches he finally concluded to give to the public,