Which American Romantic poet wrote the epic poem 'The Song of Hiawatha'?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the epic poem “The Song of Hiawatha.”

Published in 1855, the poem follows Hiawatha, an Ojibwe-inspired hero, and his love Minnehaha. Longfellow set the story around Michigan’s Pictured Rocks on the southern shore of Lake Superior and organized it into 22 chapters plus an introduction.

Longfellow drew heavily on the writings of ethnographer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, as well as oral traditions and conversations with Native American figures including Ojibwe chief Kahgegagahbowh, also known as George Copway. However, the poem combines material from different Indigenous traditions. A common mix-up is treating Hiawatha as an Ojibwe historical leader: Longfellow’s character is fictionalized, and the name Hiawatha is associated with a pre-colonial figure connected to the Iroquois League rather than being simply another name for the Ojibwe trickster Manabozho.

The poem’s distinctive rhythm is trochaic tetrameter, which gives passages such as its famous opening a chant-like, legend-inspired quality.