A beloved figure in his own era——a household name for such poems as “Barbara Frietchie” and “The Barefoot Boy”—John Greenleaf Whittier remains an emotionally honest, powerfully reflective voice. A Quaker deeply involved in the struggle against slavery (he was harassed by mobs more than once) he enlisted his poetry in the abolitionist cause with such powerful works as “The Hunters of Men,” “Song of Slaves in the Desert,” and “Ichabod!”, his mournful attack on Daniel Webster’s betrayal of the anti-slavery cause. Whittier’s narrative gift is evident in such perennially popular poems as “Skipper Ireson’s Ride” and the Civil War legend “Barbara Frietchie,” while in his masterpiece “Snow-Bound” he created a vivid, flavorful portrait of the country life he knew as a child in New England. “His diction is easy, his detail rich and unassuming, his emotion deep,” writes editor Brenda Wineapple. “And the shale of his New England landscape reaches outward, promising not relief from pain but a glimpse of a better, larger world.” About the American Poets Project Elegantly designed in compact editions, printed on acid-free paper, and textually authoritative, the American Poets Project makes available the full range of the American poetic accomplishment, selected and introduced by today’s most discerning poets and critics.

One of the Fireside poets, John Greenleaf Whittier (1807 -1892) was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate for the abolition of slavery in the United States. After school Whitter worked as editor of the National Philanthropist, a Boston-based temperance weekly. In 1833 he published the pamphlet Justice and Expediency and dedicated the next 20 years to the slavery cause. Religious Poems, Part 2., from Poems of Nature, Poems Subjective and Reminiscent and Religious Poems contains the following poems The Answer, The Eternal Goodness, The Common Question, Our Master, The Meeting, The Clear Vision, Divine Compassion, The Prayer-Seeker, The Brewing of Soma, A Woman, The Prayer of Agassiz, The Friend's Burial, A Christmas Carmen, and many more.