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July 4th, 2008
05:39 pm - Whittier, poetry, and what lasts
Yesterday I went with out-of-town guests to the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead. When the guide asked how much we knew about this American poet, I replied, "We are ashamed of how little we know about him." Although his name was familiar, I could not have told you (before yesterday!) exactly when he lived,or what his most famous poems are. Now I know that he was born in 1807 and was most influenced by the poetry of Robert Burns. By the time he was fourteen he was writing his own poetry. His first poem was published by William Lloyd Garrison when he was nineteen; Garrison became his mentor. Whitter worked as a teacher, shoemaker, and editor, and became active in the abolitionist movement. He published many poems, but it wasn't until 1866 when "Snowbound" was published that he attained financial independence through writing. By the time he died in 1892, John Greenleaf Whittier was one of the prominent poets in America.
I can't imagine a time when one poem could provide enough income to live on. Or that now, 142 years later, that famous poet and most of his poems are no longer part of the average Americans' lives.
What of each of us will remain once we're no longer alive on earth? That's one of the questions with which the protagonist of the novel I am currently writing struggles. She's nineteen years old, her father/mentor/coach has recently died and she has trouble knowing what meaningful legacy he has left. Although I don't yet know the role this item will play in her journey, I do have her take her father's old book of poems with her. I am doubtful that one of Whittier's poems will play into the plot, but we'll see!
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