Among the more famous, beloved, and popular poets of New England are the Fireside Poets. Their poetry was taught in virtually every public school, for the entertainment of parents and the edification of children; the poets/poems sought to instill good manners and proper deportment in the young, and to implant in them a sense of patriotism and service to God and country. The name “Fireside Poets” derives from the fact that their poetry was often recited around the hearth, so central to the home, as were these works, so salient in informing the young. We shall examine selected works by William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and John Greenleaf Whittier.  The class will be discussion and lecture, and should require approximately 1.5 hours of weekly preparation.