A sad but beautiful poem of a love separated by man and land. ( )

Originally published in 1847, I have an 1893 leatherbound, very used edition that I may have paid a "little" sum for from Abebooks.com online. But, as justification, this little book depicts the plight of the deportation and love lost and found of my ancestry, the Acadians, in poetry form. In this poem, Evangeline is separated from her love during the Great Deportation. She does eventually find him in America, after many of the Acadians found their way to Louisiana, but a little too late. He had found a new love and was married. This poem is well-known throughout our culture. Although, Evangeline is fictional, you will find a memorial and statue of her on the grounds of the St. Martin du Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville, Louisiana. And you will also find a park on Bayou Teche, also in St. Martinville, with an old, beautiful oak tree named after her as well, "Evangeline Oak". ( )

Beautiful Poem from 1847 ( )

It is amazing that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow could put so much into a 52 page poem. There is the love story, of course, and the themes of devotion and persistence, but there is also faith, forgiveness, the cruelties of war, injustice, extreme loss, strength of character, and reclamation.

The descriptive quality of his poetry is mesmerizing. I felt I could see the Acadian village, the Louisiana bayou and the western mountains. Does this not describe the spread of an epidemic perfectly:
And, as the tides of the sea arise in the month of September,
Flooding some silver stream, till it spreads to a lake in the meadow,
So death flooded life, and, o'erflowing its natural margin,
Spread to a brackish lake, the silver stream of existence.

You can both feel the spreading of the disease and in an eerie way, see it.

I read this once, long ago, when I was a girl. Then it was just the love story that I came away with. It was like reading Romeo and Juliet as a teenager. This time, I left the poem with so much more! ( )

An epic poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. IMHO, it is the greatest "love story" ever written. This poem is based on a true historical event, the expulsion of the Arcadians from Nova Scotia in the mid 18th century. ( )