The Enchiridion

J.G.Whittier: Complete Works

John Greenleaf Whittier: Title Page and Preface, transcribed from a copy (in possession) of a posthumous edition of the Complete Works, published in London by Frederick Warne & Co., 1894; including a brief biography by the (unnamed) Editor.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER was born at his father's homestead, on the farm at Haverhill, Massachusets, by the Merrimac River, December 17, 1807. The family had occupied the farm for two or three generations. They were Friends, or Quakers, who had sought refuge across the Atlantic from persecution in England, and found instead the most pitiless bigotry and cruel persecution from the "Pilgrims". Thomas Whittier, who settled on the banks of the Merrimac in 1638, was great-grandfather to the poet.

It was in a picturesque rural spot that the future bard passed his boyhood, working with his father, Joseph Whittier, on the farm, and trained in godliness and the tenets of her sect by his mother -- Abigail Hassay by birth.

In his sweet rural home he was surrounded by the beauties of a rich and varied landscape, and of this time he has given the world a charming picture of an almost idyllic life in his poem "Snow-Bound."

We trace in it the source of his strong feeling and efforts against slavery, for the memory of his home clung to the poet through his life. Amidst all the jarring antagonisms of politics and the wrangles and scorn of worldlings, he kept intact his ancient faith in God, his kindly tolerance, his moral sense and blamelessness. Never was the power of a pure and holy home more perfectly manifested than in the noble life of John Whittier.

The first poetry, worthy of the name, that reached the eyes and heart of Whittier, was that of Burns, whose resemblance in position to himself must have struck him. He first heard the Scotch poet's songs from a wandering pedlar, who sang them when he came to sell his wares at the farm; and afterwards his first schoolmaster, Joshua Coffin, lent him a copy of Burns's works. Inspired by the genius of the Ayrshire ploughman, he wrote himself, and sent some verses to the Newburyport Free Press, a paper then edited by the afterwards well-known William Lloyd Garrison.

The editor became interested in the youth; called on him, and urged the necessity of his being better educated. But the family were too poor to pay for the Academy. It was, however, managed afterwards by young Whittier learning to make shoes; and thus earning money enough for a six months' residence at Haverhill Academy. He was then about nineteen. While there he wrote for the Gazette, and during the interval following his first term he taught in the district school of West Amesbury.

There is something interesting and touching in these American stories of the struggles by which so many men of distinguished intellect, living in the New World, have won their education by alternate study and work.

When he had reached the age of twenty-one or twenty-two Mr Whittier left his rural home for Boston, to write for a paper called The American Manufacturer, an organ that advocated a protective tariff. He owed this employment to the influence of Garrison, whose own paper had meantime ceased.

In the columns of this Boston paper Whittier soon became still more widely known, and passed the next year from Boston to Hartford to become the editor of the New England Weekly. He retained this office only a year, being probably called home by domestic duty; for he returned to the farm and resumed his agricultural work on it.

But it was in this year that he appeared for the first time before the public as a poet, publishing "Legends of New England in Prose and Verse" and "Moll Pitcher", a poetical story of the famous witch of Nahant. Mr Whittier remained on the Haverhill farm for the next five or six years. In 1835 and 1836 he represented his native town in the Massachusets Legislature; and in the latter year published the first poem that attracted public notice -- the weird Indian legend of "Mogg Megone".

In 1836, also, he became one of the secretaries of the Anti-Slavery Society, in which cause he had already published as essay entitled "Justice and Expediency; or, Slavery considered with a View to its Abolition". Soon afterwards he removed to Philadelphia, where he edited The Pennsylvania Freeman, a strong anti-slavery journal.

The spirit of the old Quaker martyrs, whose names were recorded in his family's history, was possessed by the brave yet gentle poet. At a time when Abolitionists were exposed to great personal risk, he had the courage of his opinions, and by pen and voice denounced the crime of buying and selling men. His office was consequently attacked by a furious mob, sacked and burned. But the descendant of the martyred Quakers was not to be daunted by violence or threats, or turned from his course by contempt and reproach. He persisted in his purpose steadily -- the unshaken friend of the forlorn; and we find him next editor of the Anti-Slavery Reporter. But whilst thus pleading the cause of the slave, he still continued to issue general poems from the press.

In 1838 came out his "Ballads"; in 1843, "Lays of my Home and Other Poems"; and in 1849 he gathered together his anti-slavery poems and published them in book form under the title of "Voices of Freedom". The effect they produced at the time was very great, and though the cause for which the poet wrote has been long since won, the "Voices" are still worth hearing for their true ring of poetical fervour and strength -- the one "To Massachusets" especially. Whittier, indeed, did very much to arouse the conscience of the North; and his name may hereafter be worthily placed side by side with those of Wilberforce and Clarkson in England, and Mrs Stowe in America.

The "Songs of Labour" appeared in 1850, and, as Dr Osgood says, "Work was thus turned into play". "The Chapel of the Hermits" was published in 1853, "The Panorama" in 1856; and, on the appearance of this poem, the Athenaeum hailed the American bard with the words, "Here is indeed a poet".

"Home Ballads and Poems" were published in 1860, "In War Time" in 1863. He was also one of the chief contributors to the Atlantic Monthly.

In 1861 the Secession War had begun, and had quickly developed into an anti-slavery conflict, the slaves being called on to fight in their own quarrel. The anxiety with which Whittier watched the (at first) doubtful conflict must have been extreme, for the dream of his life had been the redemption of the slave. He was permitted to see that dream become a reality, when in 1865 the North gained a complete victory, which the poet celebrated in rejoicing verse. Amongst these stirring poems of war time is the striking one of "Barbara Frietchie", which has become justly popular.

"Snow-Bound", a winter idyl, dated from the same year. "It was written", the Round Table says, in a rather mistaken criticism, "to beguile the weariness of a sick chamber," and "is hardly open to criticism." But, in fact, it became very popular, and was largely sold. It contains a charming picture of the poet's early life at the farm, as our preceding extracts will have shown.

The year before the publication of "Snow-Bound", Mr Whittier's beloved sister, Elizabeth, who shared his poetic gift, in a degree, died, and the lament for her loss is one of the sweetest and most pathetic passages in the poem.

The pretty Ballad of "Maud Muller" and the "Tent on the Beach" followed "Snow-Bound" in 1867. The latter is a charming gathering of short poems, supposed to be read to his friends Mr Field and Bernard Taylor.

"Among the Hills" was published in 1868; "Ballads of New England" 1869, "Miriam and Other Poems" date 1870, "The Pennsylvania Pilgrim" 1872, and the "Centennial Hymn" in 1876.

Mr Whittier was not only a poet and journalist, he was also a successful prose writer. Of these works, "The Stranger in Lowell", a collection of essays, was published in 1845; "Supernaturalism in New York" in 1847. "Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal" is a record of the visit of an English girl to Massachusets in 1678-9, -- an admirably written fiction, in which the manners and people of the time are faithfully reproduced. This "Journal" was originally contributed to the National Era, from which, also, "Old Portraits and Modern Sketches" were reprinted in 1850.

A Quaker College at Salem, Iowa, opened in 1868, has been named after the poet, and is known an Whittier's College -- a very fitting homage to a man of genius and probity.

"Whittier," says Dr Mackenzie, "it seems to us, is the most thoroughly American of all our native poets." (Might not Dr Mackenzie, however, have excepted the author of "Hiawatha"?) "Never", he adds, "was an exceptionable line written by John Greenleaf Whittier, and few poets have written so entirely for the greatest happiness of the greatest number."

Whittier is, indeed, the poet of beautiful scenes and noble characters. There is little of the grim and weird in his poems, if we except "Mogg Megone", a very early work.

His poetry is marked by simplicity and vigour, and by a realism that quite fulfils our idea of Quaker truthfulness and sincerity. He is a moral and religious poet; no mother need hesitate to place his poems in her daughter's hands; "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh", and only a pure and righteous spirit could have given the world such poems as these. He tells a story or a legend with geat spirit, and does not intrude the moral that generally lurks beneath it; his lyrics ("Barbara Frietchie", for example) are spirit-stirring, while some of the smaller poems have a touching pathos in them.

The poet was singularly happy in seeing his wishes and hopes realised in his own lifetime. In 1840 his paternal farm was sold, and he removed to Amesbury, to live with his mother and sisters and a single aunt. It was a very happy home in every way.

Whittier never married.

On his seventieth birthday the publishers of the Atlantic Monthly gave him a banquet, at which the best American writers were present; and on the same day a "Whittier" number of the Literary World of Boston was published, containing most flattering tributes from his contemporaries in prose and verse.

Afterwards Whittier gave many more poems to the world, and the latest were as good or even better than those that issued from his pen in his youth.

His popularity has grown with the years; his name is now well known and his merits are equally recognised in England and in America.

In 1888 the literary world of America celebrated the eightieth birthday of the Quaker Poet; four years afterwards, Whittier died, in the early morning of September 7, 1892, known and regretted not only in America but in all English-speaking lands.

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(The Rejoice & Sing Enchiridion:edited by David Goodall; last amended 21/5/03)