Catawba Wine by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The speaker celebrates Catawba wine grown beside the Beautiful River, preferring its fragrance and flavor to other American and European wines. The speaker condemns imported wines described as adulterated and calls on winds and birds to deliver the song's greeting to the Queen of the West.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Ode, Lyric Poetry · 525 words
First lines
This song of mine / Is a Song of the Vine, / To be sung by the glowing embers / Of wayside inns, / When the rain begins / To darken the drear Novembers.
It is not a song / Of the Scuppernong, / From warm Carolinian valleys, / Nor the Isabel / And the Muscadel / That bask in our garden alleys.
What this Textopian page supports
Catawba Wine is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Ode, Lyric Poetry
- Length: 525 words
- Structure: 1 section, 11 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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- Work identity for Catawba Wine by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Ode — The speaker devotes the song to praising Catawba wine, comparing its fragrance, flavor, and purity with competing wines.
- Lyric Poetry — Eleven rhymed stanzas express the speaker's preferences and greeting, framing the verse as a song for wayside inns.
Tags
wine · vineyards · imported wine · wayside inns · regional pride