John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. He is usually listed as one of the Fireside Poets. Whittier was strongly influenced by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Highly regarded in his lifetime and for a period thereafter, he is now remembered for his poem Snow-Bound, and the words of the hymn Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, from his poem "The Brewing of Soma", sung to music by Hubert Parry.

Read more about John Greenleaf Whittier:  Poetry, Criticism, Legacy, List of Works

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    Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
    From North and from South, come the pilgrim and guest,
    When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
    The old broken links of affection restored,
    When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
    And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.
    What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
    What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?
    John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)

    ‘I’m sorry that I spelt the word:
    I hate to go above you,
    Because’Mthe brown eyes lower fell—
    ‘Because, you see, I love you!’

    Still memory to a grey-haired man
    That sweet child-face is showing.
    Dear girl! the grasses on her grave
    Have forty years been growing.
    —John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)

    You are at your very best when things are worst.
    Raynold Gideon, U.S. screenwriter, and John Carpenter. Starman (Jeff Bridges)

    Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
    Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;

    Bravest of all in Frederick town,
    She took up the flag the men hauled down;
    —John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)

    All too soon these feet must hide
    In the prison cells of pride,
    Lose the freedom of the sod,
    Like a colt’s for work be shod,
    —John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)