EVANGELINE, A TALE OF ACADIE by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Part 1

"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks."

This first line of Longfellow's poem has rung down across time, as his poem was meant to do. He wrote it in blank dactylic hexameter, reminiscent of Homer and Latin heroic verse. It was his most famous poem during his lifetime.

The first three stanzas of the poem ("the Prelude") tell the story in precis. The French-speaking settlers of what today is Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and part of Maine, known as Acadia, were forcibly expelled from their land by the British, deported and exiled during the French and Indian wars. The Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana today are their descendants in the US.

This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it
Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman
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?
Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed!
Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October
Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean
Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré.

Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,
Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion,
List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest;
List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy.

The last four lines here allude to the story woven on this historical backdrop. The love-story of Evangeline and Gabriel, separated in the evacuation, spend their lives in search of one another. Listen with us as we experience this lovely sad tale of lost love.