William Ellery Channing II was an American Transcendentalist poet, nephew and namesake of the Unitarian preacher Dr. William Ellery Channing. His uncle was usually known as "Dr. Channing", while the nephew was commonly called "Ellery Channing", in print. The younger Ellery Channing was thought brilliant but undisciplined by many of his contemporaries. Amos Bronson Alcott famously said of him in 1871, "Whim, thy name is Channing." Nevertheless, the Transcendentalists thought his poetry among the best of their group's literary products. Wikipedia
“She still is there, the guardian on the tower,
To open for the world a purer hour.”
William Ellery Channing (poet)
New England, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Context: I sing New England, as she lights her fire
In every Prairie's midst; and where the bright
Enchanting stars shine pure through Southern night,
She still is there, the guardian on the tower,
To open for the world a purer hour.
“Most joyful let the Poet be;
It is through him that all men see.”
William Ellery Channing (poet)
The Poet of the old and new Times, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
William Ellery Channing (poet)
Hymn of the Earth, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“I laugh, for hope hath happy place with me;
If my bark sinks, 't is to another sea.”
William Ellery Channing (poet)
A Poet's Hope, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“A wail in the wind is all I hear;
A voice of woe for a lover's loss.”
William Ellery Channing (poet)
Tears in Spring, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
