. The great American book of biography . the hard, bare, practicalround of farm life in a Quakerhome could repress the poetry inhim. When he was a boy ofeighteen, he sent with fear andtrembling some anonymous versesto the weekly paper in Newbury-port, of which William Lloyd Gar-rison, afterward the famous aboli-tionist, was editor. When the nextpaper came, Whittier was trans-fixed with delighted surprise to findhis verses not only printed, butcommended, with a note by the editor asking for more. Soon afterward Garri-son, himself little more than a boy, came to see the young poet, and to pleadA
. The great American book of biography . the hard, bare, practicalround of farm life in a Quakerhome could repress the poetry inhim. When he was a boy ofeighteen, he sent with fear andtrembling some anonymous versesto the weekly paper in Newbury-port, of which William Lloyd Gar-rison, afterward the famous aboli-tionist, was editor. When the nextpaper came, Whittier was trans-fixed with delighted surprise to findhis verses not only printed, butcommended, with a note by the editor asking for more. Soon afterward Garri-son, himself little more than a boy, came to see the young poet, and to pleadAvith his parents for an education for him. Whittier thus naturally drifted intoadvocacy of the cause of freedom, and for many years his earnest and thrillingpoems were devoted to that cause. On more than one occasion he was threat-ened with mob violence for his part in the abolition movement, for which, afterthe final overthrow of slavery, he was so much honored. Whittier was never married. His home was presided over for many years 666. JOHN G. wiinriiiR. JOHN G. WHirriER. 667 by his sister Elizabeth, a most lovely and talented woman, between whom andher brother was an unusually close and alTectionate bond. Her death was thegreatest loss of his life, and he has written nothing more touching than histribute to her memory in Snow Bound:— The birds arc glad : the brier-rose fillsThe air with sweetness ; all the hillsStretch green to Junes unclouded sky;But still I wait witli ear and eyeFor something gone which should be nigh,—A loss in all familiar things,In llower that blooms, and bird that vet, dear heart, remembering I not richer than of old ?Safe in thy immortality,What change can reach the wealth I hold ?What chance can mar the pearl and goldThy love hath left in trust with me? In personal appearance Whittier was described in his prime as tall, slen-der, and straight as an Indian. He has a superb head ; his broad brow lookslike a white cloud under his ra
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidgreatamerica, bookyear1896
