On Evangeline

This is a love story set against the backdrop of a case of 18th-century ethnic cleansing. Acadia, which is today primarily Nova Scotia, was, in Longfellow’s view, a true Arcadia (“this is the forest primeval / 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.”). People lived in peace and community, wanting little more than what they had.

However, British warships arrived on the coast and expelled the people of Grand-Pré in what has become known as “the Great Upheaval.” Evangeline, her father and a priest are separated from her beloved, Gabriel, and his father due to a shift in the tide. Her father dies onboard the ship as the peoples of Acadia moved toward French Louisiana, defined by its verdant forests and winding bayous. Evangeline hears rumors that Gabriel may be moving north as a fur trader, but eventually finds his father in Saint-Martin (?). From there, the travel northward seeking out Gabriel. The years pass, Evangeline’s hairs gray, but she does not give up hope of finding him. Eventually, she comes across Gabriel, now an old man, lying on his deathbed. As she kisses him once more, he quietly passes away.

The whole story is heartbreaking and is a metaphor for the dislocations that Acadians felt in being removed from their home. Longfellow’s ending, although tragic, is also a bit too optimistic. Few Acadians made their way back home, which became thoroughly Anglicized and had little in common with the Acadia that they once knew. Instead, the “true” ending may be better depicted by coming to terms with Louisiana and gradually becoming “Cajun” (which was not yet a concept at Longfellow’s time of writing).

This is an excellent, mid-nineteenth century epic poem that I really enjoyed. I read the whole thing aloud and found a sort of tranquility as I recited it. As sad as the story is, it is thoroughly American and could be read as a larger metaphor about spatial dislocations (if we ignore the brutality of ethnic cleansing and squint hard enough, we can see the story of New Englanders pining for pre-revolutionary peace in an age of industrial crisis and antebellum upheaval).