John Greenleaf Whittier war ein amerikanischer Dichter.
Als Journalist arbeitete er zu Beginn seiner Karriere für verschiedene Zeitungen in Haverhill und Boston und wurde Mitherausgeber des New England Weekly Review. Diese in Hartford erscheinende Zeitschrift war zu der Zeit das führende Sprachrohr der Whigs. Whittier war Quäker und aktiver Gegner der Sklaverei in den Südstaaten. Er war Mitglied der American Anti-Slavery Society. So tat er in seiner journalistischen Arbeit, aber auch in Gedichten wie Ichabod seine abolitionistischen Gedanken kund. Neben seinem umfangreichen lyrischen Werk schrieb er den Roman Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal . 1871 wurde er in die American Academy of Arts and Sciences gewählt.
Zu Lebzeiten war Whittier einer der angesehensten Literaten der USA, heute ist er fast in Vergessenheit geraten. Allein einige seiner Kirchenlieder werden heute noch gesungen, insbesondere Dear Lord and Father of mankind.
Nach ihm wurden zahlreiche Landschafts- und Ortsbezeichnungen benannt, u. a. die Quäkersiedlung Whittier in Kalifornien und der Mount Whittier in Carroll County, New Hampshire, in den nördlichen Ossipee Mountains.
Seine Sommerresidenz war der Ort Ossipee in New Hampshire. Wikipedia
John Greenleaf Whittier My Psalm
John Greenleaf Whittier: Mein Psalm, (orig.: My Psalm) übersetzt von Mally von Have Behler, in : Komm, leb mit mir, Silva-Verlag Iserlohn 1947, S.243
Original engl.: "That death seems but a covered way // Which opens to the light, // Wherein no blinded child can stray // Beyond the Father´s sight."
John Greenleaf Whittier My Psalm
John Greenleaf Whittier: Mein Psalm, (orig.: My Psalm) übersetzt von Mally von Have Behler, in: Komm, leb mit mir, Silva-Verlag Iserlohn 1947, S.243
Original engl.: "And so the shadows fall apart, // And so the west-winds play; // And all the windows of my heart // I open to the day."
“Better heresy of doctrine than heresy of heart.”
Mary Garvin, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Who never wins can rarely lose,
Who never climbs as rarely falls.”
To James T. Fields, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Low stir of leaves and dip of oars
And lapsing waves on quiet shores.”
Snow Bound, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 282
Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 282
“The hope of all who suffer,
The dread of all who wrong.”
The Mantle of St. John de Matha, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“O, brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother;
where pity dwells, the peace of God is there.”
John Greenleaf Whittier Worship
Worship, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“To eat the lotus of the Nile
And drink the poppies of Cathay.”
The Tent on the Beach, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Let the thick curtain fall;
I better know than all
How little I have gained,
How vast the unattained.”
My Triumph, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Tradition wears a snowy beard, romance is always young.”
Mary Garvin, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“When faith is lost, when honor dies
The man is dead!”
Ichabod, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
The eternal Goodness, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Quoted in The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, by William Cooper Nell, p. 339. (1855)
“Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag," she said.”
Barbara Frietchie (1863); reported in Diane Ravitch, The American Reader: words that moved a nation (2000), p. 259. The lines are based on an folkloric account of the real Barbara Fritchie, said to have made a similar challenge to Confederate invaders of Maryland during the American Civil War.
Channing, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 513
My Birthday', reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare Browning, Pippa Passes.
