The Fireside Poets
William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and James Russell Lowell constituted a group sometimes called the Fireside Poets or New England Poets.
They earned this nickname because they frequently used the hearth as an image of comfort and unity, a place where families gathered to learn and tell stories. These tremendously popular poets also were widely read around the hearth sides of 19th-century American families.
The consensus of American critics was that the Fireside Poets first put American poetry on an equal footing with British poetry.