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A review by poisonenvy
Whittier's Poems, Complete by John Greenleaf Whittier
challenging
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
I am hardly the best judge of poetry. I don't read nearly enough of it for my reviews to be taken as truth. But I did enjoy this collection, for the most part. My reading experience was enhanced by the fact that the book I read from was over 100 years old (I do not know an exact publishing date, since all my searching on google turned up nothing, but H.M. Caldwell Co. printed books with very similar covers in 1901, so that's my best guess). I don't know what journey it took to end up on my bookshelf,
John Greenleaf Whittier was a Quacker who wrote in the mid-19th century, and he was a staunch abolitionist. Which means that this collection was made up largely of:
- Religious poems, which I wasn't super keen on but I read regardless.
- Anti-slavery poetry, which I enjoyed quite a bit more.
- And poems about Native Americans, which were... in many ways very uncomfortable. I recognize that for poems being written in the 1840s or so, they were probably very progressive. They don't land quite right nearly 200 years later though. Still, I enjoyed them for what they were.
His poetry about nature I found to be quite lovely. But his rhyme scheme was sometimes awkward, and it seemed to me like his meter was off sometimes. I didn't find his poetry to be as lovely as other poetry I've left, sometimes sounding quite awkward.
But again, I'm hardly a poetry expert.
John Greenleaf Whittier was a Quacker who wrote in the mid-19th century, and he was a staunch abolitionist. Which means that this collection was made up largely of:
- Religious poems, which I wasn't super keen on but I read regardless.
- Anti-slavery poetry, which I enjoyed quite a bit more.
- And poems about Native Americans, which were... in many ways very uncomfortable. I recognize that for poems being written in the 1840s or so, they were probably very progressive. They don't land quite right nearly 200 years later though. Still, I enjoyed them for what they were.
His poetry about nature I found to be quite lovely. But his rhyme scheme was sometimes awkward, and it seemed to me like his meter was off sometimes. I didn't find his poetry to be as lovely as other poetry I've left, sometimes sounding quite awkward.
But again, I'm hardly a poetry expert.