Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-08-20

[From the N. Y. Evening Post.l
WHITTIER.

| me MySteT1Ous character IN '" onOa
Bound THE Late Harriet Liver
more-lnteresting Recollections.
To the Editors Of the Evening Post:
During the winter Of 1866 no mail was re-
ccived at the post-officc in the quiet village
of Amesbury, Mass, without containing
letters seeking information from John G..
Whittier concerning one Of the characters in
that beautiful New England idyl "Snow
Bound' Indeed, much of the poets time
for his circle of readers is constantly en-
arging-has been consumed in answering
the questions addressed to him in regard to
"Another guest that winter night,
Flashed back from lustrous eyes the light;
The honeyed music of her tongue,
And words Of meekness scarcely told,
| nature passionate and bold
Strong, sef-concentred, spurnng guide.
Its milder features dwarfed beside
Her unbent Wills majestic PRIDE"
| All the other characters of s'Snow Bound"
were real. The ''gray-haired sire;" the
mother who transmitted her own poetic ma
| ture and grand moral views to the boy; the
| uncle, "rich in lore of fields and brooks =
| the aunt
''The sweetest woman ever Fate
Perverse dencda household mate;"
the elder sister, who found rest
'.--beneath the low green tent
Whese curtain never outward swings;"
the younger sister and household pet, whose
dark eyes
snow bathed within the fadeless green
And holy peace of Paradise; !"
the old school teacher Qhc late Joshua Cof-
fin of Newburyport); the couatry doctor
all passes before us as real men and women,
whom we hold converse and have sympthy
But did not the poet let his imagination and
fancy play when he described one of whom
"a cerrain pard-ke. treachereus grace
swayed the 1.-THE limbs and drsoped the la.h
Lent the white teeth their dazzling flash ?"
Was it not some ideal creature conjured up
by Whittier's brain when he told how
.--frem under low brows black with night,
The sharp heat lightnngs Of her face
Presagin- i'll to him whom fate
Condemned to share her love or hate 7"
The mystery is deepened as we read on
about this
"---woman, tropical; intense
In thought and act and soul aud sense
Revealing with each freak or fent
The temper of Petruchio's Kate,
The rapures ofSiena's saint"
Nor do we have any more light on the sub
and see her amidst the tombs and shrines of
Jerusalem.
'Or sterling on her desert throne
The crazy Queen of Lebanon
With claims fantastic us her own. :"
or when she watches
..The Lords quick coming in the flesh,
Whereof she dreams and prcphesies."
And yet this one upon whom the poet in
vokes ''the Lords sweet pity" was charac-
41 .l1
comprehensive in "Snow Bound"
Last week few papers in Philadelphia
had the brief announcement Of the death of
'Harriet Livermore, aged ST." Not many
of the readers of the obituary notices that
morning knew that Harriet Livermore was
the original of the most powerful and deep
feeling lines of Whittier's ''Snow Bcund.
My home being near to Whittiers, | have
often enjoyed the most pleasant conversa-
tions with the poet on literature and various
other themes Of the day and once asked
him to give me some recollections of Harriet
Livermore. From that conversation, and
from the sketch of others who knew well
the mysterious "guest," l obtained some
facts in regard to her that may be of inter-
est.
l could not learn much of Harriet Liver
more's parents, as she was placed when
quite young under her uncle, Judge Liver
more, whom elderly persons in New Hamp-
shire and Massachusetts will still remember.
The girl early displayed great originality
and independence of character. AS her un-
Gle was also man of original ways of think
ing, two such people under one roof were
sometimes too many. 1t is said that being
thwarted in an early love attachment (per-
haps it was her uncle who thus thwarted
herr, she began to display eccentricities
which attracted much attention. Several
who remember her at their firesides, have
told me that she was generally of a
grave countenance, but that her wonderful
conversation and her flashing eyes would
command the silence, and rivet the closest at
tention of every one. Those who knew her
think that Whittier has been most happy in
catching the leading features of her portrait,
and has presented the vagaries of her de-