Evangeline
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie is an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in English and published in 1847.
[6] Longfellow, who had never visited the setting of the true story, relied heavily on Thomas Chandler Haliburton's An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia and other books for further background information.
[10] During this time, Longfellow's literary payment was at its peak; for Evangeline, he received "a net of twenty-five and sixteenths per cent" royalties, believed to be an all-time high for a poet.
"[10] The poem is written in unrhymed dactylic hexameter, possibly inspired by Greek and Latin classics, including Homer, whose work Longfellow was reading at the time he was writing Evangeline.
"[13] Even Longfellow's wife Fanny defended his choice, writing to a friend: "It enables greater richness of expression than any other, and it is sonorous like the sea which is ever sounding in Evangeline's ear.
[12] Even so, while looking over the proofs for a second edition, Longfellow briefly wished he had used a different poetic structure: It certainly would be a relief to the hexameters to let them stretch their legs a little more at their ease; still for the sake of uniformity I believe they must still sit a while longer with their knees bent under them like travelers in a stage-coach.The name Evangeline comes from the Latin word "evangelium" meaning "gospel".
The French farmers and fishermen who once inhabited the colony of Acadie in Nova Scotia are gone; the moss-covered trees and the ocean are left to tell the tale.
Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers,— Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven?
A reviewer for The Metropolitan Magazine said, "No one with any pretensions to poetic feeling can read its delicious portraiture of rustic scenery and of a mode of life long since defunct, without the most intense delight".
[10] Longfellow's friend Charles Sumner said he had met a woman who "has read 'Evangeline' some twenty times and thinks it the most perfect poem in the language".
[21] Speaking privately, all of Longfellow's literary associates but Whittier attacked the piece, including his old friend John Neal, who wrote: "You really ought to be hanged–drawn and quartered" for writing in hexameter.
[22] Prior to the influence of Longfellow's poem, historians generally focused on the founding of Halifax (1749) as the beginning of Nova Scotian history.
Parkman claimed the real reason for the expulsion was the "influence" held by the French over the Acadians, particularly by Abbé Jean-Louis Le Loutre.
[29] Felix Voorhies wrote the book Acadian Reminiscences: The True Story of Evangeline and other later works of fiction expanded upon the material of the poem, claiming the "real names" of the characters had been "Emmeline LaBiche" (in Longfellow, her full name is Evangeline Bellefontaine) and "Louis Arceneaux" (in the poem, Gabriel Lajeunesse) Lafayette, Louisiana, which supposedly belonged to Gabriel, and the grave of Emmeline in the Perpetual Adoration Garden & Historic Cemetery in St. Martin de Tours Church Square, on Main Street, St. Martinville (the site having been determined for its convenience by local boosters about the turn of the 20th century).
In 1929, Edwin Carewe made a film version starring Dolores del Río, shot in Louisiana and accompanied by a theme song written by Al Jolson and Billy Rose.
[37] The Canadian folk singer-songwriter Susan Crowe mentions the "statue of Evangeline" in her song "Your One and Only Life", the first track on an album entitled The Door to the River released in 1996.
A 1999 adaptation by Paul Taranto and Jamie Wax, Evangeline: The Musical, resulted in a 1999 cast album, and a Shreveport, Louisiana production of this version was broadcast in 2000 by PBS.
[40] An opera based on Evangeline, composed by Colin Doroschuk, debuted in 2012 in reduced concert form, and was first performed in full in 2014 at Opéra-Théâtre de Rimouski.
[41] Edmonton Opera's Brian Deedrick directed an original musical version of Evangeline, written by playwright Winn Bray and composer Tom Doyle, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, for the Mount Royal College theatre, in 2000.
[citation needed] The poem was mentioned by the band Highly Suspect in the closing song of their 2022 album "The Midnight Demon Club".
