Warren 1971, Arms 1953, and Pickard 1961 all concede a great deal to the dominant 20th-century view that there are many limits to Whittier’s accomplishment. Parrington 1927 anticipates many later 20th-century criticisms of Whittier. Most of the overviews contain a strong evaluative element, not only discussing Whittier’s achievement but assessing the terms on which it should be celebrated. Many of the critical overviews of Whittier’s work take a partly biographical approach, though they can still be distinguished from the critical biographies. In general, literary criticism of Whittier since his death has continued to shift the poet’s reputation and change his place in the landscape of American studies. Recent critical work has offered new insights into his reception, complicating the traditional view of an abolitionist who settled later in life into more genteel literary work. Only Snow-Bound has received the kind of varied detailed critical attention some authors have enjoyed with many of their works. Since his death, he has never fully regained his canonical status, though he found new life as a “schoolroom poet” in the first half of the 20th century. After the civil war, he had great success as a poet on the strength of his long narrative poem Snow-Bound. ![]() His background in politics helped to make him a particularly savvy participant in the increasingly popular antislavery parties of the 1840s and 1850s. From 1833–1865 he was known mostly as an antislavery activist and poet, though not all of his poetry in this period was related to slavery. Inspired by various popular poets of the period, Whittier published widely in the periodical press, worked as a newspaper editor, and got involved as a National Republican in politics before becoming committed to antislavery action in his mid-twenties. As a young man, he put himself through school at the Haverhill Academy. Two conditions of his childhood are often seen as central to his later life as a poet: being raised as a Quaker and growing up on an isolated farm in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He is known as one of the 19th century’s so-called fireside poets. ![]() John Greenleaf Whittier (b. 1807–d. 1892) was a major 19th-century American poet, best known for his anti-slavery poetry, his activism, his regional poetry, his religious poetry, and his interest in New England folklore.
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