The Fireside Poets. A Movement in Verse

This group of 19th Century American poets was the first to rival their British counterparts in popularity.

Gathered around their New England roots they were also known as the Schoolroom or Household poets, and comprised of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell and Olivier Wendell Holmes Senior. Occasionally Ralph Waldo Emerson was included although his poetic philosophy differed in some key aspects.

Each of these poets lived long and...