Evangeline (poem)

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Memorial in St. Martinville ( Louisiana ) for the displaced Acadians

Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie is an epic verse by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published in 1847. The poem is about an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel at the time of the forced evacuation of the Acadians, the so-called "great upheaval". The idea for the poem came from Longfellow's friend Nathaniel Hawthorne . Longfellow uses dactylic hexameters , mimicking Greek and Latin classics. Evangeline is one of Longfellow's most famous and widely read works.

The poem had a profound impact on the historiography and identity of Acadians in the 19th and 20th centuries. Recent research has shown historical errors in the poem and the complexity of the displacement, which is greatly simplified by the poem.

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The Land of Evangeline by Joseph Rusling Meeker , 1874

Evangeline tells of the love and wandering of two young academics, Évangéline Bellefontaine and Gabriel Lajeunesse, who are deported to Louisiana on various ships from Grand-Pré (Nova Scotia) the day after their engagement . The poem then accompanies Evangeline through the landscapes of America while she spends years in search of Gabriel and is sometimes near him without even realizing it. Eventually she settles in Philadelphia and works as the Sister of Mercy to the Poor . While caring for the dying during an epidemic , she finds the destitute Gabriel among the sick. He dies in her arms.

Creation and publication

Title page of the first edition from 1847

Longfellow was introduced to the true history of the Acadians in Nova Scotia by his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne . Hawthorne was told the story of a split-up Acadian couple from the Rev. Horace Conolly, Rev. Horace Connolly, who in turn had heard from their parishioners. Hawthorne and Longfellow had attended Bowdoin College together , although they were not friends at the time. Years later, in 1837, Hawthorne contacted Longfellow for his opinion on his recently published stories in the North American Review , which Longfellow praised as works of genius; both became lifelong friends from then on. Hawthorne was not interested in editing Connolly's story because, as he told Connolly, "It doesn't suit me: there are no strong lights and no heavy shadows." Longfellow, on the other hand, took the idea and turned it into a poem after studying the history of families in Nova Scotia for months.

Longfellow, who had never visited the actual story site, relied heavily on Thomas Chandler Haliburton's book An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia and similar works for further background information. His work with historical sources is attested by a diary entry dated January 7, 1847: “Went to the library and got me Watson's Annals of Philadelphia and the Historical Collections of Pennsylvania . Also Darby's Geographical Description of Louisiana . These books have to help me through the last part of Evangeline in terms of facts and local flavor. But the form and the poetry have to come from my own head. "

Evangeline was published in book form on November 1, 1847, and sold nearly 36,000 copies by 1857. During this time, Longfellow's compensation peaked; for Evangeline he received “net 25 and 1/16 percent” royalties , which should be a record for a poet.

The first French translation in North America was done in 1865 by Pamphile Le May . As early as 1851 there was a translation into German and Polish and in 1853 a French translation was published in London .

analysis

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about 1850

The poem was written in inconsistent, dactylic hexameter , possibly inspired by Greek and Latin classics, including Homer , which Longfellow read during the Evangeline constitution . Shortly before, in 1841, he had translated the poem The Last Supper by the Swedish writer Esaias Tegnér , which also used this meter . Evangeline is one of the few 19th-century works of this meter that is still widely read today.

As an example, the first four verses:

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.

Translated by Frank Siller:

Here is a wonderful jungle. The rustling spruce and fir trees,
moss cloaks, in green robes, in the uncertain twilight,
standing like druids, with voices, deep and prophetic,
standing like harpers, gray, with beards hanging over the chest,

Longfellow's choice of the dactylic hexameter has been criticized by some, including poet John Greenleaf Whittier , who said a style of prose , similar to Longfellow's Hyperion, would have been more appropriate. Longfellow was aware of the possible criticism. When Longfellow sent a copy of the poem to Bryan Procter , he wrote, “I hope you won't refuse because of the meter. In fact, I couldn't write it as it is in any other; it would have completely changed his character. ”Even Longfellow's wife, Fanny, defended his choice, writing to a friend:“ It is more expressive than any other, and it is sonorous like the sea that always rings in Evangeline's ear. ”Still, wished Longfellow briefly looking through the proofs for a second edition, he would have used a different poetic structure:

“It would certainly be a relief for the hexameters if they could stretch their legs a little more; nevertheless, I believe that for the sake of uniformity they have to sit for a while longer with their knees bent under them, like travelers in a stagecoach. "

The name Evangeline comes from the Latin word gospel . The Latin word itself is derived from the Greek words eu ("good") and angelma ("news").

Reactions

Evangeline became Longfellow's most famous work and widely read. The contemporary reviews have been very positive. A Metropolitan Magazine reviewer wrote, "No one with the pretense of poetic sentiment can read his delicious portrait of rustic scenery and a long-gone way of life without the most intense joy." Longfellow's friend Charles Sumner said he met a woman, "the Evangeline I've read about twenty times and think it's the most perfect poem in the language ”. For Longfellow himself, the story was "the best representation of the faithfulness and persistence of women I have ever heard and read of."

King Leopold I of Belgium was one of the admirers of the poem . It has been described by some as the first major long poem in American literature .

influence

Painting from 1893 showing the deportation of the Acadians in 1755

Before the influence of Longfellow's poem, historians generally took the British founding of Halifax (1749) as the starting point for the history of Nova Scotia. Longfellow's poem highlights the 150 years of Acadian settlement that preceded the founding of Halifax.

The deportation of the Acadians was planned and carried out by the New British and the British. Longfellow in the poem ignored New England's responsibility for the event and blamed the British for the displacement. This was later contested by the historian Francis Parkman in his book Montcalm and Wolfe . Rather than blaming the British, Parkman named the real problem of displacement as the French influence on the Acadians, particularly through Abbé Jean-Louis Le Loutre . The American historian John Brebner finally showed in New England's Outpost (1927) how decisive the New English played in the expulsion of the Acadians.

The poem had a profound impact on the historiography and identity of Acadians in the 19th and 20th centuries. For many Acadians, especially the turn of the century elite , it was the true story of their ancestors, “those simple Acadian peasants” who “lived in love for God and man. Just as they were free from the fear that reigns in tyrants and from envy , the vice of the republics ”. For her it was the poetic distillation of her story, the true legend of her past.

Recent research has highlighted both the historical errors in the poem and the complexity of the eviction and stakeholders that the poem obscures. Longfellow's poem transforms Acadia into a utopia and the Acadians into a homogeneous, passive, peaceful and innocent people, but is silent about the resistance that certain Acadians harbored politically and militarily against the British occupation of Acadia.

The poem prompted generations of Protestant Anglophones to identify with the plight of a people whom they often vilified and persecuted for being Catholic . It also provided a safe emblematic space for academics to develop arguments for greater recognition and respect.

Monuments

Evangeline statue in the Grand-Pré National Historic Site , Nova Scotia , Canada.

In 1920 academics in Grand-Pré rebuilt the French church with an Evangeline statue in the courtyard. Almost a decade later, in 1929, a statue of Evangeline portrayed by the Mexican silent film actress Dolores del Río Pose, who starred in the 1929 film Evangeline , was donated to the city of St. Martinville , Louisiana by the cast and crew of the film. In 1934, the Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site was the first state park in Louisiana.

In 1907 Felix Voorhies wrote the book Acadian Reminiscences: The True Story of Evangeline ("Acadian Reminiscences: The True Story of the Evangeline"). This and other subsequent works claimed that the characters' "real names" were "Emmeline LaBiche" (in Longfellow's full name Evangeline Bellefontaine), whose grave is in St. Martinville, and "Louis Arceneaux" (in the poem Gabriel Lajeunesse) from Lafayette, Louisiana . The "Evangeline Oak" in St. Martinville claims to have been the original meeting place for Emmeline and Louis.

Another site that claims to have a relationship with the historical figures on which Evangeline is based is Arceneaux House in Hamshire, Texas . An official sign indicates that Mary Gadrac Arceneaux lived here, Louis Arceneaux's great-granddaughter, and that the house passed to her brother Athenas Arceneaux and his heirs in 1880.

Toponyms

Evangeline is the namesake of many places in Louisiana and the Canadian Maritime Provinces . It is also common in street names in Acadian communities.

Louisiana

In Louisiana, the following places are named after Evangeline:

Canada

The Evangeline Trail is a historic route in Nova Scotia that traverses the Annapolis Valley , the ancestral home of the Acadians. The panorama path is lined with more than a dozen small Acadian villages. It runs from Grand-Pré, the place of the first evictions, south to Annapolis Royal near the historic site Port Royal , where the first French settlement was founded on Canadian soil. The Evangeline Trail ends in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia on the southwest coast.

Movie

Scene from the 1913 film

Evangeline from 1913 was the first ever Canadian feature film . It was produced by the Canadian Bioscope Company of Halifax andwas filmed inAnnapolis Valley and Grand-Pré. In 1919, Raoul Walsh directed the silent drama Evangeline for 20th Century Fox . He was inspired by his wife, Miriam Cooper , who stars in the film. The film was one of the duo's greatest successes, but has since been lost. In 1929 Edwin Carewe realizeda film version with Dolores del Río , which was shot in Louisiana and accompanied by a theme song by Al Jolson and Billy Rose .

The poem was featured in the film Angel Heart, starring Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro . The Disney film Kiss the Frog also makes reference to Evangeline . The Cajun - firefly Ray falls in love with a sparkling light named Evangeline, which turns out to be star. After his death at the end of the film, Ray himself appears as a star with Evangeline side by side in the night sky.

Music and theater

Evangeline was the subject of a variety of songs:

  • A popular song in French called Evangeline was written by Michel Conte in 1971 . It was originally sung by Isabelle Pierre . A version by Annie Blanchard won the 2006 ADISQ Award for Most Popular Song.
  • Robbie Robertson of The Band wrote a song Evangeline , which was sung with Emmylou Harris . In the lyrics, Evangeline is a maritime provincial girl waiting for her absent Louisiana lover, but the plot and timeframe are different from Longfellow's original. Another Robertson song, Acadian Driftwood from 1975, was also influenced by Longfellow's poem.
  • A half-hour guitars - Suite of guitarist and composer Loren Mazzacane Connors , based on scenes from the Longfellow history when it became 1998 compact disc entitled Evangeline released, the title track is sung by Suzanne Langille.
  • The Indie-Folk Artists Tony Halchak 2011 published an EP entitled A Tale of Acadie , based on the poem, but told from Gabriel's vision.

Several composers from around the world have written works based on the story of Evangeline.

The opera Evangeline by Graham George contains a libretto that and both Longfellow to sources on the history of Acadia from Paul Roddick and Donald Warren based. It was premiered on December 1, 1948 by the Queen's University Glee Club under the direction of the composer in the ballroom of Kingston's LaSalle Hotel . Other operas are by the French composer Xavier Leroux (1863-1919), whose four-act Évangéline, 'légende acadienne' was premiered in 1895 by the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels , and by the US composer Otto Luening , whose three-act Evangeline was published in May 1948 in the Brander Matthews Hall at Columbia University in New York . The National Library of Québec has fragments (67 pages) of an unfinished opera Évangéline in three acts by Émilien Allard with a libretto by Gaétan Valois.

The London-born organist George Carter composed the cantata Evangeline in 1873 . Thomas Hahn's dramatic cantata Evangeline (1967) for soprano , five male voices, choir and orchestra used a text from the Longfellow poem adapted by Joan Fontaine . Robert Talbot also wrote an oratorio on the subject. Évangéline et Gabriel , an opera by Marc Gagné partly inspired by Longfellow's poem, was completed in 1990.

Poster for the musical Evangeline; or, The Belle of Acadia from 1878

The poem was first adapted as a musical in 1874. Evangeline; or, The Belle of Acadia was a hugely successful Broadway play until the late 19th century .

Canadian folk singer and songwriter Susan Crowe mentions the "statue of Evangeline" in her song Your One and Only Life , the first track on a 1996 album entitled The Door to the River .

A 1999 adaptation by Paul Taranto and Jamie Wax, Evangeline: The Musical , resulted in an album recorded in 1999, and a performance of that musical in Shreveport was broadcast by PBS in 2000 .

A musical adaptation by Canadian Ted Dykstra premiered in Charlottetown in 2013 and re-performed in 2015 on Prince Edward Island and at the Citadel Theater in Edmonton , Alberta . Tony Award winner Brent Carver played the role of Father Felician in this production .

An opera based on Evangeline , composed by Colin Doroschuk, made its debut in an abbreviated concert form in 2012 and premiered in 2014 at the Rimouski Opera Theater. Doroschuk was previously a member of the Canadian synth-pop band Men Without Hats with his brothers .

Others

  • The first line "This is the forest primeval" is a famous example of an English anastrophe .
  • The Dominion Atlantic Railway logo consisted of a depiction of Evangeline with the text "Land of Evangeline Route". There was also a VIA Rail train called Evangeline that ran from Halifax to Yarmouth, but ceased operations in 1990.
  • From 1949 to 1982 the daily newspaper L'Évangéline appeared in New Brunswick .

Text output

German translations

  • Evangeline: A short story from Acadien. Translated from the English, with an outline of the author's life and a historical introduction by PJ Belke. Weber, Leipzig 1854.
  • Evangeline - A story from Arcadia. Translated from the English of Longfellow by Julie Gramberg. Schulzesche Hof bookstore, Oldenburg 1870.
  • Evangeline. An American epic in ten songs. In a German adaptation by Paul Herlth. Kühtmann, Bremen 1870.
  • Evangeline. Translated into German by Frank Siller. Ernst Keil, Leipzig 1879.
  • Evangeline. Idyllic epic . German by Heinrich Viehoff . Otto Hendel, Halle (Saale) approx. 1890.
  • Evangeline. American idyll. Translated by Karl Knortz . Reclam, Leipzig around 1900.
  • Evangeline. Translated from the English by Otto Hauser , picture decorations by Artur Dixon. Nister, Nuremberg around 1900.
  • Longfellow's Evangeline. Critical edition with introduction, research on the history of the English hexameter and notes by Ernst Sieper. Winter, Heidelberg 1905.
  • Evangeline I and II. Translated from English and introduction by Otto Hauser. Duncker, Weimar 1914.
  • HW Longfellow's Evangeline: A Love Song from Acadia. In a new German translation by Johannes Friedemann , edited by Ludwig Beyer-Schoder. Gudrun-Verlag, Berlin 1920.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Acadian Fairy Evangeline. In blank German verse. Transferred by August Vezin , with 12 paper cuts by Ernst Heinemann. Callwey, Munich 1929.

Secondary literature

  • Klaus Martens : The emigrated “Evangeline”: Longfellow's epic idyll in a translational transfer. (= Contributions to English and American literature. Vol. 8. ) Schöningh, Paderborn 1989, ISBN 978-3-506-70818-2 .

Documentation

Web links

Commons : Evangeline  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dean Jobb: The Acadians. John Wiley & Sons Canada, Mississauga 2005, pp. 17-18.
  2. ↑ Edwin Haviland Miller: Salem Is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 1991, ISBN 0-87745-332-2 , p. 72.
  3. ^ Philip McFarland: Hawthorne in Concord. Grove Press, New York, ISBN 0-8021-1776-7 , pp. 58-59.
  4. ^ Charles C. Calhoun: Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life. Beacon Press, Boston 2004, ISBN 0-8070-7026-2 , p. 180.
  5. ↑ Randy F. Nelson: The Almanac of American Letters. William Kaufmann, Inc., Los Altos 1981, ISBN 0-86576-008-X , p. 182.
  6. ^ A b Cecil B. Williams: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Twayne Publishers, Inc., New York 1964, p. 150.
  7. ^ Maria Hebert-Leiter: Becoming Cajun, Becoming American: The Acadian in American Literature from Longfellow to James Lee Burke. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 2009, ISBN 978-0-8071-3435-1 , p. 27.
  8. ^ Charles C. Calhoun: Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life. Beacon Press, Boston 2004, ISBN 0-8070-7026-2 , p. 189.
  9. ^ A b c Cecil B. Williams: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Twayne Publishers, Inc., New York 1964, p. 155.
  10. ^ Edward Wagenknecht: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Portrait of an American Humanist. Oxford University Press, New York 1966, p. 231.
  11. ↑ a b c N.es Griffiths: Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . March 4, 2015. Accessed June 3, 2019.
  12. ^ A b c Cecil B. Williams: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Twayne Publishers, Inc., New York 1964, p. 155.
  13. ↑ Evangeline. Translated into German by Frank Siller. Ernst Keil, Leipzig 1879.
  14. ^ Edward Wagenknecht: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Portrait of an American Humanist. Oxford University Press, New York 1966, p. 129.
  15. ^ Edward Wagenknecht: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Portrait of an American Humanist. Oxford University Press, New York 1966, p. 77.
  16. ^ Meaning, origin and history of the name Evangeline. behindthename.com, accessed June 2, 2019 .
  17. ^ A b Cecil B. Williams: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Twayne Publishers, Inc., New York 1964, p. 82.
  18. ^ Edward Wagenknecht: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Portrait of an American Humanist. Oxford University Press, New York 1966, p. 148.
  19. ^ Edward Wagenknecht: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Portrait of an American Humanist. Oxford University Press, New York 1966, p. 8.
  20. ^ A b Ian McKay, Robin Bates: In the Province of History: The Making of the Public Past in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010, pp. 40-42.
  21. ^ Ian McKay, Robin Bates: In the Province of History: The Making of the Public Past in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010, pp. 39, 99.
  22. ^ John Brebner: Acadia before the conquest of Canada. Columbia University Press, 1927.
  23. ^ Ian McKay, Robin Bates: In the Province of History: The Making of the Public Past in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010
  24. ^ John Grenier: The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. Oklahoma University Press, 2008, p. 6.
  25. ^ Ian McKay, Robin Bates: In the Province of History: The Making of the Public Past in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010, p. 128.
  26. ^ Cecil B. Williams: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Twayne Publishers, Inc., New York 1964, pp. 155-156.
  27. ↑ Evangeline Oak in St. Martinville, Louisiana. StoppingPoints.com, March 13, 2016, accessed June 2, 2019 .
  28. ↑ Arceneaux House in Hamshire, Texas. StoppingPoints.com, July 15, 2008, accessed June 2, 2019 .
  29. ^ Ted Olson: Crossroads: A Southern Culture Annual. Mercer University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-86554-978-4 , p. 209.
  30. ↑ Sheila Esthay: First Oil Well in Louisiana. Department of Natural Resources. State of Louisiana, accessed June 2, 2019 .
  31. ^ Ariane Moffatt, Pierre Lapointe win deuces at ADISQ awards. CBC News, October 30, 2006, accessed June 2, 2019 .
  32. ↑ Nick DeRiso: The Band, “Acadian Driftwood” from Northern Lights-Southern Cross (1975): Across the Great Divide. Something Else !, June 12, 2014, accessed June 2, 2019 .
  33. ↑ Mike McKenna: Tony Halchak - A Tale Of Acadie. PA Music Scene, January 2011, accessed June 2, 2019 .
  34. ^ A b c Gilles Potvin: Evangeline ( English, French ) In: Encyclopedia of Music in Canada . published by The Canadian Encyclopedia . August 11, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  35. ^ Brian D. Valencia: Musical of the Month: Evangeline. The New York Public Library, November 30, 2012, accessed June 2, 2019 .
  36. ↑ Liz Nicholls: Evangeline: Ted Dykstra's epic new Canadian musical at the Citadel. Edmonton Journal, October 30, 2015, accessed June 2, 2019 .
  37. ↑ Evangeline's Powerhouse Cast Announced July 7, 2015 (PDF)
  38. ^ Opera-Theater De Rimouski in June Premiered Colin. HighBeam Research, June 22, 2014, archived from the original on September 11, 2016 ; accessed on June 2, 2019 .
  39. ↑ Anastrophe in: MH Abrams, Geoffrey Galt Harpham: A Glossary of Literary Terms. 11th edition, Cengage Learning, 2015, p. 344 ( Google Books ).
  40. ^ Charlotte Gray: The Museum Called Canada: 25 Rooms of Wonder. Random House, 2004.