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WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF (1807-1892)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 614 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WHITTIER, See also:JOHN See also:GREENLEAF (1807-1892) , See also:America's " Quaker poet " of freedom, faith and the sentiment of the See also:common See also:people, was See also:born in a Merrimack Valley farmhouse, See also:Haverhill, See also:Massachusetts, on the 17th of See also:December 1807. The dwelling was built in the 17th See also:century by his ancestor, the sturdy immigrant, See also:Thomas Whittier, notable through his efforts to secure See also:toleration for the disciples of See also:George See also:Fox in New See also:England. Thomas's son See also:Joseph joined the Society of See also:Friends and See also:bore his See also:share of obloquy. Successive generations obeyed the monitions of the Inner See also:Light. The poet was born in the faith, and adhered to its liberalized tenets, its garb and speech, throughout his lifetime. His See also:father, John, was a See also:farmer of limited means but See also:independent spirit. His See also:mother, See also:Abigail Hussey, whom the poet strongly resembled, was of See also:good stock. The Rev. See also:Stephen Bachiler, an See also:Oxford See also:man and a Churchman, who became a See also:Nonconformist and emigrated to See also:Boston in 1632, was one of her forebears and also an ancestor of See also:Daniel See also:Webster. The poet and the statesman showed their kinship by the " dark, deep-set and lustrous eyes " that impressed one who met either of these uncommon men. The former's name of Greenleaf is thought to be derived from the See also:French Feuillevert, and to be of Huguenot origin; and there was Huguenot See also:blood as well in Thomas Whittier, the settler. The poet thus fairly inherited his See also:con-See also:science, religious exaltation and spirit of protest.

All the Whittiers were men of stature and bodily strength, John See also:

Green-See also:leaf being almost the first exception, a lad of delicate See also:mould, scarcely adapted for the labour required of a See also:Yankee farmer and his See also:household. He bore a See also:fair proportion of it, but through-out his See also:life was frequently brought to a See also:halt by See also:pain and See also:physical debility. In youth he was described as " a handsome See also:young man, tall, slight, and very erect, bashful, but never awkward." His shyness was extreme, though covered by a See also:grave and quiet exterior, which could not hide his love of fun and sense of the ludicrous. In See also:age he retained most of these characteristics, refined by a serene expression of See also:peace after contest. His eyes never lost their glow, and were said by a woman to be those of one " who had kept innocency all his days." Whittier's See also:early See also:education was restricted to what he could gain from the See also:primitive " See also:district school " of the neighbourhood. His See also:call as a poet came when a teacher See also:lent to him the poems of See also:Burns. He was then about fifteen, and his See also:taste for See also:writing, bred thus far upon the See also:quaint See also:Journals of Friends, the See also:Bible and The See also:Pilgrim's Progress, was at once stimulated. There was little See also:art or See also:inspiration in his boyish See also:verse, but in his nineteenth See also:year an older See also:sister thought a specimen of it good enough for submission to the See also:Free See also:Press, a weekly See also:paper which See also:William See also:Lloyd See also:Garrison, the future emancipationist, had started in the See also:town of See also:Newburyport. This initiated Whittier's See also:literary career. The poem was printed with a eulogy, and the editor sought out his young contributor: their See also:alliance began, and continued until the See also:triumph of the See also:anti-See also:slavery cause See also:thirty-seven years later. Garrison overcame the See also:elder Whittier's See also:desire for the full services of his son, and gained permission for the latter to attend the Haverhill See also:academy. To meet expenses the youth worked in various ways, even making slippers by See also:hand in after-See also:hours; but when he came of age his See also:text-See also:book days were ended.

Mean-while he had written creditable student verse, and contributed both See also:

prose and See also:rhyme to See also:newspapers, thus gaining friends and obtaining a decided if provincial reputation. He soon essayed journalism, first spending a year and a See also:half in the service of a publisher of two Boston newspapers, the Manufacturer, an See also:organ of the See also:Clay protectionists, and the Philanthropist, devoted to humane reform. Whittier edited the former, having a See also:bent for politics, but wrote for the latter also. His father's last illness recalled him to the See also:homestead, where both See also:farm and See also:family became his pious See also:charge. See also:Money had to be earned, and he now secured an editorial See also:post at See also:Hartford, See also:Connecticut, which hesustained until forced by See also:ill-See also:health, early in his twenty-fifth year, to re-seek the Haverhill farm. There he remained from 1832 to 1836, when the See also:property was sold, and the Whittiers removed to See also:Amesbury in See also:order to be near their See also:meeting-See also:house and to enable the poet to be in See also:touch with affairs. The new See also:home became, as it proved, that of his whole after-life; a dwelling then bought and in See also:time remodelled was the poet's See also:residence for fifty-six years, and from it, after his See also:death on the 7th of See also:September 189; his remains were See also:borne to the Amesbury graveyard. While in Hartford Whittier issued in prose and verse his first book, Legends of New England (1831), and edited the writings of the poet John See also:Gardiner C. Brainard. Thenceforward he was constantly See also:printing verse, but of the See also:hundred or more pieces composed before his See also:settlement at Amesbury less than fifty are retained in his final collection. Of these none has more significance than the poem to Garrison, which appeared in 1831, and was read (December 1833) at the See also:Philadelphia See also:Convention that formed the Anti-Slavery Society. To that convention, with one-third of its membership composed of Friends, Whittier was a delegate, and was appointed one of the See also:committee that drafted the famous See also:Declaration of Sentiments.

Although a Quaker, he had a polemical spirit; men seeing Whittier only in his saintly age knew little of the See also:

fire wherewith, setting aside ambition and even love, he maintained his warfare against the " See also:national See also:crime," employing See also:action, See also:argument and lyric scorn. A future was open foe him among the Protectionists, who formed the Whig party, and doubtless soon would have carried him to the See also:United States See also:Congress. As it was, he got no farther than the legislature of his own See also:state (1835-1836), elected by his neighbours in an anti-slavery town. But if Garrison, See also:Phillips and See also:Sumner and Mrs See also:Stowe were to be the rhapsodists of the See also:long emancipation struggle, Whittier was its foreordained poet-seer. In 1833 he had issued at his own cost a pamphlet, " See also:Justice and Expediency," that provoked vehement discussion See also:North and See also:South. Later he shared with the See also:agitators their experience of lawlessness, See also:mob-violence and See also:political odium. His sister See also:Elizabeth, who became his life See also:companion, and whose verse is preserved with his own, was See also:president of the Woman's Anti-Slavery Society in Amesbury. It is to be noted that the first collection of Whittier's lyrics was the Poems written during the Progress of the Abolition Question in the United States, issued by a friend in 1837. But Mogg Megone (1836) was his first book, a crude See also:attempt to apply the manner of See also:Scott's romantic cantos to a native theme. Among his other lyrical volumes, of See also:dates earlier than the See also:Civil See also:War, were See also:Lays of my Home (1843), Voices of Freedom (1846), Songs of Labor (185o), The See also:Chapel of the Hermits (1853), The See also:Panorama (1856), Home See also:Ballads (186o). The titles of In War Time (1863) and National Lyrics (1865) rightly designate the patriotic rather than Tyrtaean contents of these books. The poet was closely affiliated with the See also:Atlantic Monthly from the See also:foundation of that classic See also:magazine in 1857.

His repute became national with the welcome awarded to See also:

Snow-See also:Bound in 1866, and brought a corresponding material See also:reward. Of his later books of verse may be mentioned The See also:Tent on the See also:Beach (1867), The See also:Pennsylvania Pilgrim (1872), The See also:Vision of Echard (1878), The See also:King's Missive (1881), At Sundown, his last poems (1890). As early as 1849 an illustrated collection of his poems appeared, and his Poetical See also:Works was issued in See also:London in 185o. During the ensuing See also:forty years no less than ten successive collections of his poems appeared. Meanwhile he did much editing and compiling, and produced, among other works in prose, The Stranger in See also:Lowell (1845), Supernaturalism in New England (1847), Leaves from See also:Margaret See also:Smith's See also:Journal (1849), a pleasing treatment in old-See also:style See also:English of an early Colonial theme. When he died, in 1892, in New See also:Hampshire, among the hills he loved and sang so well, he had been an active writer for over sixty years, leaving more than. that number of publications that bore his name as author or editor. His See also:body was brought to Amesbury for interment; the funeral services were held in the open See also:air, and conducted after the See also:simple See also:rites of the Friends, in the presence of a large concourse, certain of whom " spake as they were 'roved " in See also:tribute to the See also:bard. The Amesbury house has been acquired by the " Whittier Home Association," so that the See also:building and grounds are guarded as he See also:left them, and See also:form a See also:shrine to which there is a See also:constant See also:pilgrimage. The Haverhill homestead, memorized in Snow-Bound, is also held by trustees "to preserve the natural features of the landscape," and to keep the buildings and See also:furniture somewhat as they were in their See also:minstrel's boyhood. It would be unjust to consider Whittier's See also:genius from an See also:academic point of view. See also:British. lovers of See also:poetry—except John See also:Bright and others of like faith or spirit—have been slow to comprehend his distinctive See also:rank. As a poet he was essentially a balladist, with the faults of his qualities; and his ballads, in their freedom, naivete, even in their undue length, are among the few See also:modern examples of unsophisticated verse.

He returned again and again to their See also:

production, seldom labouring on sonnets and lyrics of the Victorian mould. His See also:ear for See also:melody was inferior. to his sense of time, but that his overfacilit-1 and structural defects were due less to lack of taste than to early See also:habit, Georgian See also:models, disassociation from the See also:schools, is indicated by his See also:work as a writer of prose. In Margaret Smith's Journal an See also:artistic, though suppositive, Colonial style is well maintained. Whittier became very sensible of his shortcomings; and when at leisure to devote himself to his art he greatly bettered it, giving much of his later verse all the See also:polish that it required. In extended See also:composition, as when he followed See also:Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside See also:Inn with his own Tent on the Beach, he often failed to See also:rival his graceful See also:brother poet. In See also:American balladry he was pre-eminent; such pieces as " The See also:Swan See also:Song of See also:Parson Avery," " See also:Marguerite," " See also:Bar-clay of lJry," " Skipper Ireson's Ride," " In the ' Old South,' " hold their See also:place in literature.. It is necessary above all to consider the relation of a people's years of growth and ferment to the song which represents them; for in the strains of Whittier. more than in those of any other 19th-century lyrist, the saying of See also:Fletcher of Saltoun as to the ballads and See also:laws of a nation finds a historic See also:illustration. He was the national bard of justice, humanity and reform, whose See also:voice went up as a See also:trumpet until the victory was won. Its lapses resembled those of Mrs See also:Browning, who was of his own breed in her fervour and exaltation. To the last it was uncertain whether a poem by Whittier would " turn out a sang," or " perhaps turn out a See also:sermon "; if the latter, it had deep sincerity and was as See also:close to his soul as the other. He began as a liberator, but various causes employed his See also:pen; his See also:heart was with the people, and he was understanded of them: he loved a worker, and the Songs of Labor convey the zest of the See also:artisan and See also:pioneer. From 1832 to 1863 no occasion escaped him for inspiring the assailants of slavery, or chanting paeans of their martyrdom or triumph.

No crusade ever had a truer See also:

laureate than the author of " The See also:Virginia Slave Mother," " The See also:Pastoral See also:Letter "—one of his stinging ballads against a time-serving See also:Church—" A See also:Sabbath See also:Scene," and " The Slaves of See also:Martinique." ' See also:Randolph of See also:Roanoke " is one of the - most pathetic and most elevated of memorial tributes. " Ichabod " and " The Lost Occasion," both evoked by the attitude of Webster, are See also:Roman in their condemnation and " See also:wild with all regret." The green rusticity of Whittie:'s farm and See also:village life imparted a bucolic See also:charm to such lyrics as " In School Days," " The See also:Bare-See also:foot Boy," " Telling the Bees," " Maud See also:Muller," and " My School-See also:mate." His idyllic masterpiece is the sustained transcript of See also:winter scenery and home-life, Snow-Bound, which has had Ails equal except Longfellow's "Evangeline" in American favour, but, in fact, nothing of its class since " The Cottar's Saturday See also:Night " can justly be compared with it. Along with the Quaker poet's homing sense and See also:passion for See also:liberty of body and soul, See also:religion and patriotism are the -dominant notes of his song. His conception of a See also:citizen's See also:prerogative and See also:duty, as set forth in The See also:Eve of See also:Election," certainly is not that of one whose See also:legend is " our See also:country, right or wrong." Faith, See also:hope and boundless charity pervade the " Questions of Life," " Invocation," and " The Two Angels," and are exquisitely blended in " The Eternal Goodness," perhaps the most enduring of his lyrical poems. " We can do without a Church," he wrote in a letter; " we cannot do without See also:God, and of Him we are sure." The inward voice was his inspiration, and of all American poets he was the one whose song was most like a See also:prayer. A knightly celibate, his stainless life, his ardour, caused him to be terrned a Yankee Galahad; a pure and simple heart was laid bare to those who loved him in " My See also:Psalm," " My Triumph " and " An Autograph." The spiritual habit See also:abated no whit of his inborn sagacity, and it is said that in his later years political leaders found no shrewder See also:sage with whom to take counsel. When the question of primacy among American poets was canvassed by a See also:group of the public men of See also:Lincoln's time, the See also:vote was for Whittier; he was at least one whom they understood, and who expressed their feeling and convictions. See also:Parkman called him " the poet of New England," but as the North and See also:West then were charged with the spirit of the New England states, the two verdicts were much the same. The fact remains that no other poet has sounded more native notes, or covered so much of the American legendary, and that Whittier's name, among the patriotic, clean and true, was one with which to conjure. He was revered by the peoplecleaving to their altars and their fires, and his birthdays were calendared as festivals, on which greetings were sent to him by young and old. In his age the poet revised his works, classifying them for a definitive edition, in seven volumes, published at Boston, 1888. Their metrical portion, annotated by See also:Horace E.

Scudder, can be found in the one-See also:

volume " See also:Cambridge Edition," (Boston, 1894). Whittier's Life and Letters, prepared by his kinsman and literary executor, See also:Samuel T. Pickard, also appeared in 189a. See also G. R. See also:Carpenter, John Greenleaf Whittier (Boston, 1903) in the "American Men of Letters" See also:series; a life (1907) by See also:Bliss See also:Perry; and B. Wendell, Stelligeri (New See also:York, 1893, pp. 149-201).

End of Article: WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF (1807-1892)

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