The Village Blacksmith

The Village Blacksmith illustration

"The Village Blacksmith" is a poem. It was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It was published in 1841 in Longfellow's book, Ballads and Other Poems.

The real blacksmith of the poem was Dexter Pratt. He was Longfellow's neighbor. The first lines of the poem are well-known: "Under a spreading chestnut tree / The village smithy stands."

In 1879, children in Cambridge, Massachusetts gave Longfellow a chair. It was made from the chestnut tree of the poem.

The Village Blacksmith Media

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  First page of the original manuscript for "The Village Blacksmith"

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  The title character of "The Village Blacksmith", third from the left, depicted in the Longfellow Memorial by Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon, Cambridge, Massachusetts

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  Chair made from the chestnut tree in the poem, presented to Longfellow in 1879

Other websites

• Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1890). The Village Blacksmith (illustrated version ed.).