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The Last Farewell

A poem by Edward Bliss Emerson, retold as a story

This reader is adapted from a poem titled 'The Last Farewell,' written by Edward Bliss Emerson (the brother of the famous essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson) as he sailed from Boston to Porto Rico in 1832. The poem was published in a collection of Ralph Waldo Emerson's works in the nineteenth century. Edward was a promising young scholar who travelled to the Caribbean for his health, but he died there at the age of twenty-nine. This poem captures the ache of leaving home and the people we love, and it shows how separation tests the bonds of family and affection. It is worth reading because it speaks honestly about feelings that every child will one day know: the sorrow of goodbye and the courage it takes to move forward into the unknown. This text reflects its era.

Band

Green · Independent readers, earlyTypical starting range: ages 9–11

Length

long · about 860 words in 6 sections · 3 pictures

Source

Poems, Ralph Waldo Emerson

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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