John Greenleaf Whittier

Born:  December 17, 1807, near Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Died:  September 7, 1892, Hampton Falls, New Hampshire.

Buried:  Union Cemetery, Amesbury, Massachusetts.

    American poet, born of Quaker parents in 1807 at Haverhill, MA, and educated at the academy of his native place. In his younger days Whittier worked on his father's farm and learned the shoemaking trade, but early began to write for the press. In 1831 he published his first work, "Legends of New England," in prose and verse. He carried on the farm himself for five years and, from 1835-36, he was a member of the legislature of Massachusetts. After having edited several other papers, Whittier went to Philadelphia to edit the Pennsylvania Freeman, an anti-slavery paper, the office of which was burned by the mob in 1838. In the following year, he returned to his native state, settling at Amesbury or Danvers, MA, where he chiefly resided until his death. Among the numerous volumes of poetry which he from time to time gave to the world, the following may be mentioned: "Moll Pitcher," "Lays of My Home," "Miscellaneous Poems," "The Voices of Freedom," "Songs of Labor," "The Chapel of the Hermits," "Home Ballads," and poems "Snow Bound," "In War-time," "National Lyrics," "Ballads of New England," "Miriam," "Mabel Martin," "Hazel Blossoms," "The Kings' Missive," and "Poems of Nature." Whittier died in 1892.
    At age 22, Whittier became editor of the American Manufacturer in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1830, he began editing the Haverhill Gazette and the New England Weekly Review (Hartford, Connecticut). In 1835, Whittier was elected to the Massachusetts legislature. From 1847 to 1859, he wrote for The National Era in Washington, DC.
    Whittier was influential in the antislavery movement, and served as secretary of the American Antislavery Society. When he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he edited the Pennsylvania Freeman. Mobs attacked him several times because of his views.
    Whittier is known as America’s “Quaker poet.” He also wrote almost 100 hymns.
    Hymns by Whittier include:

  1. All as God Wills
  2. All Things are Thine
  3. Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
  4. God Giveth Quietness at Last
  5. Green Earth Sends Its Incense Up, The
  6. Harp at Nature's Advent Strung, The
  7. Hast Thou, ’Midst Life’s Empty Noises
  8. I Ask Not Now for Gold to Gild
  9. I Bow My Forehead to the Dust
  10. I Know Not What the Future Hath
  11. Immortal Love, Forever Full
  12. It May Not be Our Lot
  13. May Freedom Speed Onward, Wherever the Blood
  14. Now Is the Seed Time
  15. O Backward Looking Son of Time
  16. O Beauty, Old Yet Ever New
  17. O Brother Man
  18. O Fairest Born of Love and Light
  19. O, He Whom Jesus Loves Has Truly Spoken
  20. O Holy Father, Just and True
  21. O Lord and Master of Us All
  22. O Love! O Life!
  23. O Maker of the Fruits and Flow­ers
  24. O Not Alone with Outward Sign
  25. O Pure Reformers, Not in Vain
  26. O Sometimes Gleams upon Our Sight
  27. O Thou, at Whose Rebuke the Grave
  28. O Thou, Whose Presence Went Be­fore
  29. O, What Thou Our Feet May Not Tread Where Christ Trod
  30. Our Friend, Our Brother, and Our Lord
  31. Our Thought of Thee is Glad with Hope
  32. Path of Life We Walk Today, The
  33. Shall We Grow Weary in Our Watch?
  34. Sound Over all Waters
  35. Sport of the Changeful Mul­ti­tude
  36. Thine Are All the Gifts, O God
  37. Thou Hast Fallen in Thine Ar­mor
  38. Today, Beneath Thy Chastening Eye
  39. We Faintly Hear, We Dimly See
  40. We See Not, Know Not
  41. We May Not Climb the Heavenly Steeps
  42. When on My Day of Life
  43. Who Fathoms the Eternal Thought
  44. With Silence Only as Their Benediction
  45. Within the Maddening Maze of Things