WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT was born in Cummington, Massachusetts,
November 3, 1794. He was educated at Williams College. He studied
law and was admitted to the bar. His first poem was published when
he was thirteen. His best-known poem, "Thanatopsis," was written
when he was only nineteen and delivered at his college commencement.
After practicing law for a short time, he became editor of _The
Evening Post_ and continued this work until his death. When he was
seventy-two, he began his translation of Homer, which occupied him
for six years. He died in 1878.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON was born in Boston, May 20, 1803. He
studied at Harvard College, and after a period of teaching, became
pastor of a Unitarian church in Boston for a short time. Later he
settled in Concord, spending his time in writing and lecturing in
this country and England. He was the founder of what has been called
"The Concord School of Philosophy." His best-known poems are "The
Concord Hymn," "Rhodora," "The Snow Storm," "Each and All," "The
Days," and "The Humble Bee." He died in 1882.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW was born in Portland, Maine,
February 27, 1807. He was educated at Bowdoin College and, after a
period of study abroad, was appointed professor of Foreign Languages
there. This position he gave up to become professor of Modern
Languages and Literature at Harvard College. At Cambridge he was a
friend of Hawthorne, Holmes, Emerson, Lowell, and Alcott. His
best-known long poems are "Evangeline," "Hiawatha," "The Building
of the Ship," and "The Courtship of Miles Standish." He made a fine
translation of Dante's "Divine Comedy." Among his many short poems,
"Excelsior," "The Psalm of Life," "The Wreck of the Hesperus," "The
Village Blacksmith," and "Paul Revere's Ride" are continuously