“Excelsior” from Ballads and Other Poems, 1842.
Read by Charles Calhoun, Jane Wald, Steve Young, Erika Koss, and Cindy Hall Kouré. On February 27, 2008, Longfellow’s 201st birthday, five travelers from along the Old Post Road made themselves comfortable in oldest room of the Inn, which is where the Howe family’s tavern started in 1716. With the fire burning low and snow lightly falling outside, they enjoyed a late night of warm camaraderie and poetry, re-creating the ambiance of Longfellow’s Tales of a Wayside Inn.
Charles Calhoun, Portland, ME • Jane Wald, Amherst, MA • Steve Young, Chicago, IL • Erika Koss, Washington, DC • Cindy Hall Kouré, Natick, MA

“The Bridge” from The Belfrey of Bruges and Other Poems, 1845.
Read by Charles Calhoun, author of Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life.

“The Arrow and the Song” from The Belfrey of Bruges and Other Poems, 1845.
Read by Steve Young, Program Director for the Poetry Foundation, one of the largest literary foundations in the world.

“The Bells of San Blas” from In the Harbor, 1882.
Read by Erika Koss, Senior Literature Specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts.

“The Village Blacksmith” from Ballads and Other Poems, 1842.
Read by Jane Wald, Executive Director of the Emily Dickinson Museum.

“A Psalm of Life” from Voices of the Night, 1839.
Read by Cindy Hall Kouré, Project Director for the Longfellow Big Read. A Chinese admirer of Longfellow’s presented him with this fan inscribed with A Psalm of Life in Chinese in 1865.

"The Landlord's Tale" (Paul Revere's Ride)
Longfellow used landlord Lyman Howe as the inspiration for the narrator of this poem. Hear the poem read by current Innkeeper Bob Purrington.

(click play button to hear poem, and be sure to hit stop before you play the next poem.)

"Hiawatha's Departure" (By the shores of Gitche Gumee)
Excerpt from the Song of Hiawatha read by Michael Maglaras.
Listen to more excerpts read by Michael Maglaras and buy the CD Song of Hiawatha.

(click play button to hear poem, and be sure to hit stop before you play the next poem.)

Click to the WGBH Forum Network website to listen to NEA Chairman Dana Gioia talk about the life of Longfellow and the and cultural significance of his works.
Web page includes both audio and video.

Click to the WGBH Forum Network website to listen to noted Longfellow biographer Charles C. Calhoun, author of Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life.

Charles Calhoun will be speaking at the Goodnow Library on February 28th at 7pm. Click here for more details.

Click to the WGBH Forum Network website to listen to independent historian Charles Bahne talk about Longfellow's his research on Longfellow's Poem "Paul Revere's Ride."

Charles Bahne will be speaking at the Wayside Inn on March 20th at 7pm. Click here for more details.

Click to the WGBH Forum Network website to listen to Dartmouth College Professor Colleen G. Boggs discuss Longfellow's expertise as a translator.

Colleen G. Boggs will be speaking at the Goodnow Library on March 13th at 7pm. Click here for more details.

The Portland Press Herald special edition, published for Longfellow's 200th birthday, has a selection of poems read aloud by a variety of Maine personalities.