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John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) was an American poet whose humanitarianism and great popular appeal established him as an important 19th-century figure.

John Greenleaf Whittier was born on a farm near Haverhill, Mass., on Dec. 17, 1807, of poor Quaker parents. His formal education was meager. At the age of 14 he discovered Robert Burns's poetry, with its Scottish dialect and humble, rural subjects. He began writing poems; one caught the eye of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, who published it in 1826 in his paper, the Newburyport Free Press. Garrison encouraged him to continue his schooling, and Whittier attended Haverhill Academy on and off for two years. For a time he also taught school. Meanwhile, his poems were being published in local newspapers.

Between 1829 and 1846 Whittier edited various journals, including the abolitionist Pennsylvania Freeman (1838-1840). In 1835 he served in the Massachusetts Legislature.

With his vigorous antislavery essay Justice and Expediency (1833), Whittier firmly committed himself to the abolitionist cause. His antislavery poems such as "The Yankee Girl," "The Slavery-Ships," "The Hunters of Men," "Massachusetts to Virginia," and "Ichabod" were equally vigorous. He was well aware of his limitations as a poet; his was poetry in service of a cause, a poetry, often, of declamation. As he had put it in "Proem," he was concerned with "Duty's rugged march through storm and strife" and viewed the "softer shades of Nature's face,/ … with unanointed eyes." His volumes Lays of My Home (1843), Voices of Freedom (1846), and Songs of Labor and Other Poems (1850) reflected his belief in art as a weapon.

Poor health caused Whittier to curtail his editorial duties, but he was able to serve as contributing editor from 1847 to 1859 of the abolitionist journal National Era.

There was another, gentler side to Whittier. After about 1850 he also wrote folksy New England ballads and narrative poems, sentimental country idylls, and simple religious poems that appealed strongly to his readers. Among the most popular are "Skipper Ireson's Ride," "John Underhill," "Maud Muller," "Telling the Bees," "The Barefoot Boy," "Snow-Bound" (his masterpiece), "The Eternal Goodness," and "My Psalm."

In his later years many honors came to Whittier. He died on Sept. 7, 1892, at Hampton Falls, N.H.

Further Reading

The standard edition of Whittier's work is The Complete Poetical Works, with a biographical sketch by Horace E. Scudder (1894). The standard biography is Samuel T. Pickard, Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier (2 vols., 1894; rev. 1907). Edward Wagenknecht, John Greenleaf Whittier: Portrait in Paradox (1967), is compact and balanced. Other sound studies include John A. Pollard, John Greenleaf Whittier: Friend of Man (1949; repr. 1969), a thorough work; Lewis G. Leary, John Greenleaf Whittier (1961); and John B. Pickard, John Greenleaf Whittier: An Introduction and Interpretation (1961).

Additional Sources

Burton, Richard, John Greenleaf Whittier, Philadelphia: R. West, 1977 c1901.

Fields, Annie, Whittier: notes of his life and of his friendships, Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1977 c1893.

Woodwell, Roland H., John Greenleaf Whittier: a biography, Haverhill, Mass.: Trustees of the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead, 1985.

For more information on John Greenleaf Whittier, visit Britannica.com.

(hwĭt'ēər) , 1807–92, American Quaker poet and reformer, b. near Haverhill, Mass. Whittier was a pioneer in regional literature as well as a crusader for many humanitarian causes.

Early Life

Whittier received a scanty education but read widely. An introduction at the age of 14 to Robert Burns's poetry inspired him to write verse; his first poems were published (1826) in the Newburyport Free Press, edited by William Lloyd Garrison, the abolitionist, who became his lifelong friend. In the years from 1828 to 1832, Whittier edited and contributed stories, sketches, and poems to various newspapers. His first two published books, Legends of New England (1831) and the poem Moll Pitcher (1832), warmly portrayed everyday life in his rural region.

Abolitionist and Poet

Whittier is depicted so often as the gentle hoary-headed Quaker that the fiery politician within him is often forgotten. He declared himself an abolitionist in the pamphlet Justice and Expediency (1833) and went to the unpopular national antislavery convention. In 1834–35 he sat in the Massachusetts legislature; he ran for Congress on the Liberty ticket in 1842 and was a founder of the Republican party. He also worked staunchly behind the political scene to further the abolitionist cause and was an active antislavery editor until 1840, when frail health forced him to retire to his Amesbury home.

From there he sent out more of the poems and essays that made him a spokesman for the cause, and he was corresponding editor (1847–59) of the Washington abolitionist weekly, the National Era. In addition, Whittier compiled and edited a number of books; the most entertaining was the semifictional Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal (1849). Meanwhile, his volumes of verse came out almost biennially; the first authorized collection appeared in 1838.

After the Civil War he turned from politics and dedicated himself completely to poetry. Although he liked to think of himself as the bard of common people, as in Songs of Labor (1850), his best work is his careful and accurate delineation of New England life, history, and legend. His most famous poem is Snow-bound (1866), an idyllic picture of his boyhood home; other memorable volumes are The Tent on the Beach (1867) and Maud Muller (1867). Such ballads as “Barbara Frietchie,” “Marguerite,” and “Skipper Ireson's Ride”; perennial favorites like “The Barefoot Boy” and the war poem “Laus Deo”; and his nearly 100 hymns, of which the best known is “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind,” gave him popularity in his time surpassed perhaps only by Longfellow.

In current critical estimation, Whittier's ability as a balladist surpassed his ability as a poet. His meters and rhythms were conventional and his poems tended to be too profuse. Nevertheless, as the voice of the New England villager and farmer prior to industrialization, his work portrays an important period in American history.

Bibliography

See biographies by S. T. Pickard (1907, repr. 1969), J. A. Pollard (1949, repr. 1969), W. Bennett (1941, repr. 1971), W. J. Linton (1893, repr. 1973), and T. W. Higginson (1902, repr. 1973); studies by L. G. Leary (1961) and E. Wagenknecht (1967).

(1807-1892)

1831	Legends of New-England in Prose and Verse. Whittier's first book, which receives little attention, is significant as an original endeavor to represent New England folklore. Uneasy with the gothic style of the book, Whittier would suppress it later in life.
1833	Justice and Expediency. Whittier's antislavery tract is written in the same year he was elected as a delegate to the National Anti-Slavery Convention. His verses and other tracts on the subject would be collected in Poems Written During the Progress of the Abolition Question (1838).
1836	"Mogg Megone." Whittier's critically acclaimed poem concerns Native American life in Maine and the relationship between Catholic missionaries and Indians. The North American Review calls it "a work of real and distinguished power."
1837	Poems Written During the Progress of the Abolition Question in the United States. Whittier's first collection of poetry is published in an unauthorized edition by Boston abolitionists and the next year expanded by Whittier and published as Poems. It contains his attacks on slavery, including "Clerical Oppressors," which assails Southern religious officials who use Christianity to uphold slavery, and "Stanzas," which discusses the irony of America's dual commitment to freedom and the slave system.
1838	Narrative of James Williams, an American Slave. Published anonymously by the American Anti-Slavery Society, this is a transcription and reworking of a slave narrative.
1843	Lays of My Home and Other Poems. Whittier's return to regional poetry contains some of his best verses, such as "The Merrimack," "The Funeral Tree of the Sokokis," "The Ballad of Cassandra Southwick," and "Massachusetts to Virginia." Many of the poems cover ideas such as acceptance and unity that echo his antislavery works. One of Whittier's most impassioned abolitionist poems responds to those in Virginia who complain that Massachusetts has refused to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law by justifying noncompliance and urging Virginians to remember the ideals of Thomas Jefferson.
1846	Voices of Freedom. Whittier's final collection of antislavery verse contains his most ardent poem on the subject, "Massachusetts to Virginia," in which he responds to Virginians' attacks on Massachusetts for refusing to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law.
1849	Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1678-9. Originally published anonymously in the National Era, this is the author's only novel, written in the form of a diary kept by a young English girl visiting New England. The Margaret Smith character is considered by many, including twentieth-century literary scholar Lewis Leary, one of the earliest "native heroines."
1849	Poems. This expanded edition of his 1838 Poems receives wide critical praise; the American Whig Review notes, "there is scarcely a modern poet whose admirers would more gladly welcome the scattered lays of their favorite in so fine a form for constant reference."
1850	"A Sabbath Scene." Whittier's most aggressive antislavery poem is written to oppose the Fugitive Slave Law and speaks out against religious leaders in the North who believe that the Bible sanctions slavery. The poem tells of a parson who returns a runaway slave who is hiding in the church. Whittier also publishes "Ichabod," whose title in Hebrew means "inglorious." The poem expresses the antislavery faction's disappointment over Daniel Webster's support of the Compromise of 1850. In the poem "The Lost Occasion" (1880) Whittier would moderate his view on Webster's betrayal.
1856	The Panorama and Other Poems. A verse collection containing some of Whittier's most popular poetry, including the very popular "Barefoot Boy," a nostalgic poem celebrating boyhood in the country; "Maud Muller," a poem about the lost possibility of love; and an antislavery poem, "The Haschich."
1860	Home Ballads and Other Poems. This collection contains Whittier's popular poems "Skipper Ireson's Ride," a ballad about the punishment of a fisherman who was accused of leaving his rival fisherman to die in a shipwreck, and "Telling the Bees," about a young man who approaches the home of his fiancée and sees the hired girl dressing the hives, an old New England mourning custom, and realizes that his beloved has died.
1864	In War Time and Other Poems. Whittier's collection includes one of his most famous poems, "Barbara Frietchie," relating the supposedly true incident in which a ninety-year-old Unionist dares to raise the Stars and Stripes as Stonewall Jackson enters Frederick, Maryland, declaring these well-known lines: "Shoot if you must, this old gray head, / But spare your country's flag, she said."
1865	National Lyrics. Whittier reissues the poems of In War Time (1863) along with "Laus Deo," a poem commemorating the end of slavery.
1866	Snow-Bound, a Winter Idyll. The poet's masterpiece and most enduring poem is a "Yankee pastoral" that he had promised James Russell Lowell he would write. The primarily iambic tetrameter couplets describe a winter snowstorm blanketing Whittier's childhood farm in Massachusetts. It nostalgically presents images of rural life then waning in America, such as family stories and poems recited by the fire, connection with nature, and a schoolteacher boarding at the family's home.
1867	The Tent on the Beach and Other Poems. Whittier's cycle of verse narratives, in the manner of Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn, includes "The Eternal Goodness," the poet's expression of his spiritual faith.
1869	Among the Hills and Other Poems. Whittier's collection, which can be compared with the work of the New England local-color writers, shows an awareness of the darker and solitary side of rural life in New England.
1872	The Pennsylvania Pilgrim and Other Poems. The title work is regarded as one of Whittier's most successful narrative poems. It describes the Quaker settlement of Germantown, Pennsylvania, under the leadership of Francis Daniel Pastorius. Also included is "The Brewing of Soma," from which the popular hymn "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" is taken.
1878	The Vision of Echard. Whittier's collection contains "The Witch of Wenham," one of his best renderings of colonial customs. It displays his knowledge of the psychology of witchcraft and local superstitions. Included as well are "In the 'Old South'" and the courtly love lyric "The Henchman."
1892	At Sundown. Whittier had this final collection printed privately for friends in 1890. Published in 1892, it includes the last poem he wrote for his friend Oliver Wendell Holmes on the occasion of Holmes's eighty-third birthday.

Quotes:

"Of all that Orient lands can vaunt, of marvels with our own competing, the strangest is the Haschish plant, and what will follow on its eating."

"When faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead."

"Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all."

"O Time and change! -- with hair as gray as was my sire's that winter day, how strange it seems, with so much gone of life and love, to still live on!"

"One brave deed makes no hero."

"Here Greek and Roman find themselves alive along these crowded shelves; and Shakespeare treads again his stage, and Chaucer paints anew his age."

See more famous quotes by John Greenleaf Whittier

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