Whittier at 200 - preview
Simon Webb looks back on John Greenleaf Whittier in his bicentenary year
In later life, the poet John Greenleaf Whittier looked a lot like that other great abolitionist, Abraham Lincoln Both were lanky Yankees, who faced the world with resolutely moustache-less American-style beards Both men were frequently photographed, but whereas the president tended to assume a grim expression for the camera, Whittier sometimes managed a dry half-smile
Whittier was a Quaker farm-boy from Massachusetts, who went on to become a poet, journalist and editor of newspapers In those days, poems were more frequently published in the American news-papers, and this custom seems to have provided a launch pad for Whittier's verses Many of his shorter poems are 'newsy', in that they are responses to topical events, such as 'the Meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society, at Chatham Street Chapel, NY, 1834' Some verses of this 'occasional' type were read out at such events and later printed in newspapers and books – others were supposed to be set to music, to become hymns We have Whittier to thank for the words of the hymn 'Dear Lord and Father of Mankind'
Simon Webb
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