Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1892-11-10
Whittier as a Religious Poet.

Mr.. G. E. Woodberry, in the Novem-
Der atlantic Monthly, thus speaks of
Whittier as religious poet:
The Christian faith which he expressed
is not to be limited as distinctly charac-
teristic of New England. No one would
make the claim. 1t was descended from
the Quaker faith only as Emerson's was
derived from that of the Puritan.
Whittier belongs with those few who
arise in all parts of the Christian world
and out of the bosom of all sects, who
are lovers of the spirit. They Illustrate
the purest teachings of Christ, they ex-
press the simplest aspirations of man;
and this is their religious life. They
do not trouble themselves except to do
good, to be sincere, to walk in the sight
of the higher powers with humbleness,
and if not without doubt, yet with un-
diminished trust. The optimism of
Whittier is one with theirs. 1t is indis-
solubly connected with his humanity to
men. In his religious as in his moral
nature there was the same simplicity,
the same entire coherency. His ex-
preston of the religious feeling is always
noble and impressive. He is one of the
very few whose poems, under the fervor
of religious emotion, have taken higher
range and become true hymns. Several
of these are already adopted into the
books of praise. But independently of
these few most complete expressions of
trust and worship, whenever Whittier
touches upon the problems of the spitit-
ual life he evinces the qualities OF a
great and liberal nature; indeed, the
traits which are most deeply impressed
upon us, in his character, are those
which are seen most clearly in his re-
ligious verse. 1t is impossible to think
of him and forget that he is Christian.
1t if not rash to say that it is probable
that his religious poems have reached
many more hearts than his antislavery
pieces, and have had profounder influ-
ence to quiet, to console, and to refine.
Yet he was not distinctly poet of re-
ligion, as Herbert was. He was man
in whom religion was vital, just as af-
fection for his home and indignation at
wrong doing were vital. He gave ex-
preston to his manhood, and c1nse-
quently to the religious life he led.
There are in these revelations of his
nature the same trankness and the same
reality as in his most heated pOlemics
with the oppressors of the weak; one
can not avoid feeling that it is less the
poet than the man who is speaking, and
that in his words he is giving himself to
his fellow-men. This sense that Whit
tier belongs to that class of writer's in
whom the man is larger than his work
is just one. Over and above his natural
genius was his character. At every step
of the analysis, it is not with art, but
with matter, not with the literature OF
taste, but with that of life, not with a
poets skill, but with a mans soul, that
we find ourselves dealing; in word, it
is with character almost solely; and it
is this which has made him the poet OF
his people, as the highest art might have
failed to do, because he has put his New
England birth and breeding, the COM
mon inheritance of her freedom-loving,
humane, and religious people which he
shared. into plain living, yet on such a
level of distinction that his virtues have
honored the land.