John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an American
Quaker poet and advocate of the
abolition of
slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the
Fireside Poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet
Robert Burns. Whittier is remembered particularly for his anti-slavery writings as well as his book
Snow-Bound.
Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl
To the Memory of the Household It Describes
This Poem is Dedicated by the Author
“As
the Spirits of Darkness be stronger in the dark, so Good Spirits, which
be Angels of Light, are augmented not only by the Divine light of the
Sun, but also by our common Wood Fire: and as the Celestial Fire drives
away dark spirits, so also this our Fire of Wood doth the same.” —Cor.
Agrippa, Occult Philosophy, Book I.ch. v.
“Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,
And veils the farm-house at the garden’s end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the courier’s feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of Storm.”
here Whittier quoted Emerson's storm poem
then he starts:
The sun that brief December day
Rose cheerless over hills of gray,
And, darkly circled, gave at noon
A sadder light than waning moon.
Slow tracing down the thickening sky
Its mute and ominous prophecy,
A portent seeming less than threat,
It sank from sight before it set.
A chill no coat, however stout,
Of homespun stuff could quite, shut out,
A hard, dull bitterness of cold,
That checked, mid-vein, the circling race
Of life-blood in the sharpened face,
The coming of the snow-storm told.
The wind blew east; we heard the roar
Of Ocean on his wintry shore,
And felt the strong pulse throbbing there
Beat with low rhythm our inland air.
for more either go to the book itself or to this link:
http://myweb.northshore.edu/users/sherman/whittier/haverhill/snowbound.html
