What Does John Greenleaf Whittier's In School Days Mean

John Greenleaf Whittier captured American hearts with detail of his poem “In School Days”. He was a sickly, but quite famous fireside poet. Living to the epic age of eighty-five, he wrote hundreds upon hundreds of poems. He had poems over many topics, but the most on nature and abolishment of slavery. He wrote in the romanticism time period, which started in the late 18th century and went into the mid-19th century. It was period of enlightenment and self-expression. One of his most famous poems was “In School Days”. It tells the tale of a man looking back at his childhood school days, and remembering young love. The details of the poem are the most important part. He means to show to live for all the positives in life. John Greenleaf Whittier
His parents were John, a farmer, and Abigail, a simple housewife. They were both devout Quakers, and Whittier followed in their footsteps. He had one brother and two sisters. He was incredibly frail and weak, and suffered sickness throughout his life. Throughout his childhood, he poured his time into reading. He read many religious books, and was incredibly knowledgeable on the Bible. He lived far from other people on a farm. He enjoyed the nature, but was stressed by the toil of life and work on the farm. Due to this, he also didn’t receive much schooling. Some of his earliest known poems were wrote in his teenage years, remembering his few school days. His mother and one of his sisters encouraged his creative poetry, but his father didn’t care, only thinking and knowing of the strain of the farm life (Scudder xii). His first ever published poem was sent into a newspaper, by his sister without Whittier knowing. Once he saw the poem he was deeply moved and ecstatic. The editor of the paper got him sent to an academy. He worked as a shoemaker to pay every cent for his education. After working with multiple papers he returned to the farm to pay the mortgage and take charge for his dying father. His father died in 1830 and this was incredibly stressful for him because he had to take over the farm. In the late-1830’s and 40’s he did a large amount of political work. He loved politics, but
Whittier spends the first 3 stanzas describing a old school house, one that people of the time could recognize. Experts say, “Whittier . . . produced literary material that is physically linked to an historical context. . . .” (Leonard), showing how he reaches into everyday people’s history. He describes its rickety, worn, old textures. He then details children anxious to leave school. When the girl says, “‘I’m sorry that I spelt the word: I hate to go above you, Because . . . Because, you see, I love you!’” (Whittier 33-36), she is literally saying that she is sorry for beating him in the spelling bee. When she says this, Whittier exemplifies it by saying, “—the brown eyes lower fell,—” He is showing how the girl is truly upset, and deeply does love him. When it paces ahead to the boys old age, it uses detail to show age, “gray-haired man. . . sweet child-face. . . .”, which helps show the depth of the poem. What this poem literally means is that though the school of life has been hard, there are many positives that can be lived for in life. It is here about the importance of the small things in life, and that they cannot be taken for granted. He means to mourn for all who have truly cherished and put himself before there own