|
: ''This article is about William Ellery Channing, the Transcendentalist poet. For the Unitarian theologian, see William Ellery Channing.'' William Ellery Channing (November 29, 1818 – December 23, 1901) was a Transcendentalist poet, nephew of the Unitarian preacher Dr. William Ellery Channing. (His namesake 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. ==Life and work== Channing was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Dr. Walter Channing, a physician and Harvard Medical School professor. He attended Boston Latin School and later the Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts, then entered Harvard University in 1834, but did not graduate. In 1839 he lived for some months in Woodstock, Illinois in a log hut that he built; in 1840 he moved to Cincinnati. In the fall of 1842 he married Ellen Fuller, the younger sister of transcendentalist Margaret Fuller〔Channing, W. Ellery. Introduction (by Sanborn, F.B. 2/1/1902), p. xxii "Poems of Sixty-Five Years"., http://books.google.com/books?id=-Fw_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PR15&dq=ellery+channing+poetry&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PaNwT9_RE4fy0gH54vneBg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=ellery%20channing%20poetry&f=false〕 and they began their married life in Concord, Massachusetts where they lived a half-mile north of The Old Manse as Nathaniel Hawthorne's neighbor. Channing wrote to Thoreau in a letter: "I see nothing for you on this earth but that field which I once christened 'Briars;' go out upon that, build yourself a hut, and there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive. I see no alternative, no other hope for you."〔Channing, William E. (William Ellery Channing Letters ), 1836-1845〕 Thoreau adopted this advice, and shortly after built his famous dwelling beside Walden Pond. Some speculation identifies Channing as the "Poet" of Thoreau's ''Walden''; the two were frequent walking companions. In 1843 he moved to a hill-top in Concord, some distance from the village, and published his first volume of poems, reprinting several from ''The Dial''. Thoreau called his literary style "sublimo-slipshod". The printing of a compilation of these poems was subsidized by Samuel Gray Ward.〔Smith, Harmon. ''My Friend, My Friend: The Story of Thoreau's Relationship with Emerson''. University of Massachusetts Press, 1999: 85. ISBN 1-55849-186-4.〕 In 1844–1845, Channing separated from his family and restarted his wandering, unanchored life. He first spent some months in New York City as a writer for the ''Tribune'', after which he made a journey to Europe for several months. In 1846 he returned to Concord and lived alone on the main street, opposite the house occupied by the Thoreau family and then by Alcott. During much of this time he had no fixed occupation, though for a while, in 1855-1856, he was one of the editors of the ''New Bedford Mercury''. After enumerating his various wanderings, places of residence, and rare intervals of employment, his housemate Franklin Benjamin Sanborn wrote of him: In 1873, Channing was the first biographer of Thoreau, publishing ''Thoreau, the Poet-Naturalist''. When visiting the Emersons in 1876, the young poet Emma Lazarus met Channing and accompanied him on a tour of some of the places Thoreau had loved, stating in her journal in regard to the friendship between Thoreau and Channing, “I do not know whether I was most touched by the thought of the unique, lofty character that had instilled this depth and fervor of friendship, or by the pathetic constancy and pure affection of the poor, desolate old man before me, who tried to conceal his tenderness and sense of irremediable loss by a show of gruffness and philosophy. He never speaks of Thoreau's death, but always 'Thoreau's loss', or 'when I lost Mr. Thoreau,' or 'when Mr. Thoreau went away from Concord'; nor would he confess that he missed him, for there was not a day, an hour, a moment, when he did not feel that his friend was still with him and had never left him. And yet a day or two after, when I sat with him in the sunlit wood, looking at the gorgeous blue and silver summer sky, he turned to me and said: 'Just half the world died for me when I lost Mr. Thoreau. None of it looks the same as when I looked at it with him.' " Ellery Channing gave Emma Lazarus Henry Thoreau's compass.〔McGill, Frederick T. Jr., ''Channing of Concord: A Life of William Ellery Channing II'', New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1967, p. 169.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William Ellery Channing (poet)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|