" And at family gatherings with their grandmother, there were frequent challenges to recite Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's famous (and famously lengthy) "Paul Revere's Ride.

WSJ: Caroline Kennedy returns to poetry for 10th book

The first American woman to obtain a pain-free birth, Fanny Longfellow, the wife of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was severely criticized for her choice.

WSJ: Amanda Foreman on the Continued Gender Tug-of-War

"Give us the tools, and we will finish the job, " he said in a Feb. 9, 1941, radio plea for U.S. aid, quoting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Sail on, O Union, strong and great!"

WSJ: Churchill: The Power of Words | Morgan Library & Museum | The Origins of His Oratory | by Alexander Heffner