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This peer review discussion has been closed.
I'm hoping to get this read for an FA review soon. The question is: Is it ready as it stands? It seems somewhat short and I'm not sure where to expand. Despite living a long life, it was a pretty boring one so I'm not sure how much more in-depth the bio needs to be. Perhaps under Writing style? Criticism? Legacy? Improvements to the prose are also welcome. Thanks in advance. --Midnightdreary (talk) 04:37, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Finetooth comments: This is nicely written, appears to be well-sourced, neutral, stable, and sufficiently illustrated. After reading the article's talk page, I think I should add that I'm not a Longfellow expert, and I don't know for certain that the article is comprehensive. I have a few tiny suggestions about the prose.

Lead

  • "Longfellow himself died in 1882" could be shortened to "Longfellow died in 1882".

European tours

  • The precise sum of $2,604.24 might be a bit more readable rounded to $2,604. The level of precision to the nearest penny seems odd anyway because it was an estimate.
  • "Elizabeth" should be set off by commas in " ...his favorite sister Elizabeth had died... ".

Courtship of Frances

  • I'd unlink George Stillman Hillard here because he's linked just a few sentences earlier toward the end of "European tours".
  • I add "as" to "However, Longfellow himself wrote..." so that it reads "However, as Longfellow himself wrote... ".

Death of Frances

  • In "no candle or wax but the fire started", I'd add a "that", so that it reads "no candle or wax but that the fire started... ".

Death of Frances

  • To avoid repeating "his" and "bad enough", I'd suggest re-casting the sentence that starts "His own injuries to his face were bad enough that he stopped shaving,... " and instead saying something like "His facial injuries caused him to stop shaving,...".

Later life and death

  • This sentence is puzzling: "Scholars generally regard the work as autobiographical, reflecting the translator as an aging artist facing his impending death." Perhaps something like this would work: "Scholars generally regard the work as autobiographical in the sense that both men were aging artists facing impending death."

Style

  • The Manual of Style prefers "use" to "utilize". Thus: "using anapestic and trochaic forms".
  • I'd suggest adding the word "high" before the word "quality" in "called for the development of quality American literature".
  • Perhaps "several countries, including European, Asian, and Arabian countries" could be re-cast to avoid repeating "countries".

If you find this truly brief set of suggestions helpful, please consider reviewing another article, especially one from the PR backlog. That is where I found this one. Finetooth (talk) 04:34, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Finetooth, thanks - as always - for giving a thorough review. My apologies for not responding sooner as I've been in (and still am in) Edgar Poe bicentennial mode. Great suggestions all around! --Midnightdreary (talk) 17:51, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]