Friday, September 2, 2011

"Snow-Bound," by John Greenleaf Whittier

"Snow-Bound" is probably the only poem I waited years to read.

The first time I heard of it was in my early homeschooling days, back in the late 1980s. The third grade history book contained a variety of biographies of notable people that influenced the United States, starting with Christopher Columbus and ending with Billy Sunday.

One of those biographies was of John Greenleaf Whittier and his inspiration of "Snow-Bound," first published in 1866. It is a LONG narrative poem about a family that swaps stories around a fire while waiting out a three-day blizzard.

Although the textbook series I used with my children often referred to "Snow-Bound," it never appeared in any of the readers or literature books.

So this spring, I found it on the Internet to share with my seveteen-year-old daughter, Rebekah.

And yes, it was worth the wait.

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