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Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie (1847) is an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians, the forced removal of inhabitants of the North American region historically known as Acadia by Britain during the French and Indian War (1754–1763). The poem had a powerful effect in defining both Acadian history and identity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It represents lost loved ones and heartbreak but also keeping hope.

Statue of Evangeline in St. Martinville

Statue of Evangeline in St. Martinville

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
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.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighbouring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.

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