HENRY Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the most widely-known and best-loved American poets of the 19th century.

He achieved a level of national and international prominence previously unequalled in the literary history of the United States, and is one of the few American writers honoured in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey. In fact, Longfellow is believed to be the first, as his bust was installed there in 1884. Poems such as Paul Revere’s Ride, Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie and A Psalm of Life, are long remembered by generations who studied them as children.