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Photo courtesy of Library of
Congress.
John Greenleaf Whittier
Brahmin Era Poet, 1807-1892
"The symmetry of
Longfellow's life and genius forms a strong
contrast to the somewhat strait limits of Whittier's culture. The poetic
taste that lived for eighteen years in the "spells" of farm work,
shoemaking, and "schooling" that made up his life in a New England village—the
fancy that found play in Quaker history and Indian superstition—had
need to be strong as well as peculiar. Whittier was a characteristic product
of New England influences, and he has been their worthiest poet. Upright,
patriotic and talented, the man has had the rare fortune of remaining
unsophisticated in life, manners, and verse.
[Whittier]
was born in 1807, of Quaker parentage, in Haverhill, Mass. His literary
career began with journalism in Boston in 1829, and was continued in
Hartford, Haverhill, Philadelphia, and Washington until 1847. His early
poems, Mogg Megone (1836) and the Burial of Pennacook, are
Indian stories derived from early colonial records, and adorned with some of
Whittier's most beautiful descriptions
of scenery.
From the very
first he was an outspoken and ardent supporter of the anti-slavery movement.
The signing of his name to the Anti-slavery Declaration in
1833 seems to have been a kind of dedication of his muse to
the cause which he believed inseparable from justice and humanity.
Until the close of
the Civil War he was busy in writing and publishing in newspapers,
magazines, and books the series of stirring lyrics and moral denunciations
whose titles tell their own story: Voices of Freedom (1841), The
Panorama, and other Poems (1856), In War-Time (1863).
The
inspiration of his poetry after the Civil War has been the beauty of
New England's scenery, the sober charm of her rural life.
Snow-Bound (1865) is a masterpiece. It was followed by The Tent on
the Beach (1867), Among the Hills, Miriam, and a number of other
slight poems, all showing the author's purity of spirit and lyric
grace. Mr. Whittier bas also published two volumes of his collected prose
writings, besides editing John Woolman's Journal.
Source: English & American Literature, Shaw & Backus, p.432
Sample Works
A Prisoner For Debt
A Song Of Harvest
The Life For Which I Long
To William Lloyd
Garrison
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