A collection of poems by the respected New England poet of the 19th century. He was a Quaker who opposed slavery and other injustices in his writing. The title poem, "Snow-Bound," had its origins as Whittier's attempt to recreate his farm boyhood and to memorialize now-dead family members, like his mother and sister Elizabeth. Other poems in this volume include: "The Quaker of the Olden Time," "Sunset on the Bear Camp," "The Tent on the Beach," "Ichabod," "A Sea-Dream," etc. As the voice of the New England villager and farmer prior to industrialization, his work portrays an important period in American history.
1807-1892
John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Although he received little formal education, he was an avid reader who studied his father's six books on Quakerism until their teachings became the foundation of his ideology. Whittier was heavily influenced by the doctrines of his religion, particularly its stress on humanitarianism, compassion, and social responsibility.
Whittier produced two collections of antislavery poetry: Poems Written during the Progress of the Abolition Question in the United States, between 1830 and 1838 and Voices of Freedom (1846). He was an elector in the presidential election of 1860 and of 1864, voting for Abraham Lincoln both times.
The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 ended both slavery and his public cause, so Whittier turned to other forms of poetry for the remainder of his life.
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