Evangeline
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- For other uses, see Evangeline (disambiguation)}}}.
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie is a poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It describes the betrothal of an Acadian peasant girl named Evangeline to her lover, Gabriel, and their separation as the British deport the Acadians from Canada in the Great Expulsion. The poem then follows Evangeline across the landscapes of America as she spends years in a search for him. Finally she settles in Philadelphia and, as an old woman, works as a nurse among the poor. While tending the dying during an epidemic she finds Gabriel among the sick, and he dies in her arms.
Despite the fact that Longfellow had no links to the Acadians or Louisiana, the Cajuns have adopted her story into their culture. Though “Evangeline” was not a usual Acadian name before the poem was published, it is today relatively common among the descendants of the Acadians. Evangeline is also the name of a Parish in Louisiana.
Later works of fiction expanded upon the material of the poem, claiming the “real names” of the characters had been “Emmeline LaBiche” (in Longfellow her full name is Evangeline Bellefontaine) and “Louis Arceneaux” (in the poem, Gabriel Lajeunesse). Among sites which claim a relation to these pseudohistorical figures are a house north of Lafayette, Louisiana, which supposedly belonged to Gabriel, and the grave of Emmeline in the Perpetual Adoration Garden & Historic Cemetery in St. Martin de Tours Church Square, on Main Street, St. Martinville (the site having been determined for its convenience by local boosters about the turn of the 20th century). A statue of Emmeline stands nearby — posed for by silent film star Dolores Del Rio, who starred in the 1929 film Evangeline, and donated to the town by the film's cast and crew.
The name "Evangeline" means "good news" or "bearer of good news", from Greek ευ "good" and αγγελμα (angelma) "news, message".
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