Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform, Complete

John Greenleaf WhittierProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5

Word count: 393K words
Chapters: 40

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform, Complete by Whittier. Author: Whittier, John Greenleaf, 1807-1892. Language: English. Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature. Release Date: Dec 1, 2005

Editor's review

This collection by Whittier centers on two great themes—antislavery and labor reform—setting the fervor of social protest alongside the lyric tradition of poetry, and displaying a rare heat and moral urgency within nineteenth-century American reform literature. Its strength lies in refusing to reduce political conviction to slogans: through narrative scenes, dramatic monologues, and the rhythms of ballad, it grounds the claims of abolition and the dignity of labor in specific people and fates. The language is generally clear and forceful, though some poems carry the rhetorical habits of their age and benefit today from a little historical context. It suits readers interested in American literary history, the history of social movements, or political writing in English verse, and works well as classroom reading, especially when paired with historical background. As a public-domain electronic text it is light and easy to search, but lacks detailed annotation, so newcomers should first learn something of the nineteenth-century American abolition movement and the condition of labor.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying nineteenth-century American literature and social movements
University literature students who need English poetry selections for courses
History enthusiasts interested in abolition and labor history who want a literary entry point
English-language readers who wish to understand Whittier’s poetic range

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking only light, lyrical verse and indifferent to social issues
Beginners not yet proficient in English who need detailed annotation
Researchers expecting a fully scholarly or heavily annotated edition

Reading tips

Begin with the shorter ballad-form pieces to feel their rhythm and voice, then move on to the longer narrative poems.
Note the names and events mentioned as you read, and use a basic timeline of the American abolition movement to understand the context.
Read labor-themed poems alongside antislavery ones to compare how the same author handles different issues.
For classroom use, choose two or three complete poems for close reading and discuss how poetic rhetoric serves social argument.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What are the main themes of this collection?

As the title indicates, it gathers poems on antislavery and poems and songs on labor and reform. They begin from the circumstances of particular people and events to express concern for slavery and the hardships of workers, rather than offering abstract political declarations.

Can I understand it without annotations?

Most poems are plainly written with clear imagery, and reasonably proficient English readers can read them independently. But many refer to specific nineteenth-century American events and figures, which may be missed without notes; readers should first learn the basic background of the abolition movement and labor conditions of the time.

Is it suitable as a classroom text?

It can serve as supplementary reading. It is compact and thematically focused, making it easy to select individual poems for close discussion; but the public-domain electronic text has no teaching notes or study questions, so instructors must supply historical background and guiding materials themselves.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

John Greenleaf Whittier Author · American · 1807–1892

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) was an American poet and abolitionist, a Quaker, and one of the nineteenth-century "Fireside Poets," born in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He devoted himself early to the anti-slavery cause, edited several abolitionist newspapers, and gave voice to the movement in verse collected in volumes such as the Anti-Slavery Poems. His poetry ranges widely: the narrative poem Snow-Bound depicts New England country life and family memory in plain, homely language, while other works include nature poems, subjective and reminiscent pieces, religious poems, and legendary narrative poems such as The Tent on the Beach. His writing is simple and warm in feeling, marked by strong local color and moral concern. The library holds 44 of his works. Public information is limited, so this note gives only the main points of his life and writing.