Introduction
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Journal, February 24, 1847
EDGAR ALLAN POE, “Review of [Longfellow’s] Hyperion,” Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, October 1839
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Massachusetts: John Owen, 1839
EDGAR ALLAN POE, “Letter to B— —”, Southern Literary Messenger, July 1836
WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS to EDGAR ALLAN POE, Autographed Letter, July 30, 1846
WILLIAM E. BURTON to EDGAR ALLAN POE, Autographed letter, May 30, 1839
THOMAS H. CHIVERS to EDGAR ALLAN POE, Autographed Letter, August 27, 1840
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Outre-Mer, or The Pilgrimage, Boston: Hillard, Gray, & Company, 1835
EDGAR A. POE, “Review of Orion by R. H. Horne,” Graham’s Magazine, 1844
Edgar Allan Poe, “A Chapter on Autography [part I],” Graham’s Magazine, November 1841, 19:224-234
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Songs on Slavery, Cambridge: MA: John Owen, 1842
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie, Boston: William D. Ticknor & Company, 1847
EDGAR ALLAN POE, “Editorial Miscellany,” The Broadway Journal, November 22, 1845
SARAH MARGARET FULLER, Review of “Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,” in Papers on Literature and Art, New York: Fowlers and Wells, 1851
FULLER to the Editor of the Broadway Journal [E. A. POE]
EDGAR ALLAN POE, “Sarah Margaret Fuller,” in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 5, New York: J. S. Redfield, 1850.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, A Fable for Critics: A Glance at a Few of Our Literary Progenies, New York: G. P. Putnam, 1848
EDGAR ALLAN POE to FREDERICK W. THOMAS Autographed letter, February 14, 1849
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, “At the Saturday Club,” in Before the Curfew, and Other Poems, Chiefly Occasional, Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1888. [First published in the Atlantic Monthly, January 1884]
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, “Our Dead Singer,” The Atlantic Monthly, June 1882.
EDGAR ALLAN POE to RUFUS WILMOT GRISWOLD, Autographed Letter, May 29, 1841
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW to RUFUS WILMOT GRISWOLD, Autographed Letter, September 28, 1850
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW to Messrs Welch and Bigelow, April 23, 1864
THOMAS OLDHAM BARLOW (1824-1889), Washington Irving and his Friends at Sunnyside, engraving based on a composite photograph by Felix Octavius Carr Darley (1822-1888)
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Twice-Told Tales, Boston: John B. Russell, 1837
EDGAR ALLAN POE, “Review of Twice-Told Tales,” Graham’s Magazine, May 1842
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, [unsigned] “Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne,” North American Review, July 1837
Chapter 5 Conclusion

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Journal, February 24, 1847

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HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Journal, February 24, 1847

In Hexameter sings serenely a
Harvard professor;
In Pentameter him damns censorious Poe.

Well aware of Poe’s constant criticism, Longfellow privately celebrated his own inclination to avoid public debates. The form of this observation suggests that Longfellow was familiar with Poe’s focus not only on plagiarism but also on the Serene One’s allegedly faulty use of hexameters (metrical lines consisting of six feet).

Harvard College, Houghton Library Repository

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Journal, February 24, 1847

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Journal, February 24, 1847

In my afternoon’s walk, changed it, and added three more.

I.
In Hexameter plunges the headlong cataract downward;
In Pentameter up whirls the eddying mist.

II.
In Hexameter rolls sonorous the peal of the Organ;
In Pentameter soft rises the chant of the choir.

III.
In Hexameter gallops delighted a beggar on horseback;
In Pentameter, whack! tumbles he off of his steed.

IV.
In Hexameter sings serenely a Harvard Professor;
In Pentameter him Damns censorious Poe.

Image of journal

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