The Supernaturalism of Snow-Bound

Abstract

THROUGHOUT his long career as poet, journalist, and essayist, John Greenleaf Whittier continued to articulate a cramped, equivocal attitude toward subjects dear to his heart. Despite his interest in legend and folklore, and his deliberate, reiterative use of folktales and folk customs and beliefs in hundreds of his poems, Whittier repeatedly assumed-in both his poetry and his prose-a distinctively defensive posture toward the supernaturalism of which he wrote. In his dedicatory poem, To My Sister, with a copy of 'The Supernaturalism of New England,' Whittier stresses the importance of his account of the superstitions and folkways in New England, but he also feels compelled to address those wise and sage readers who may scoff at the folly of a middle-aged man stooping to the level of boyhoods's folly.l Even in midcareer (1847), Whittier was not comfortable with the wild and wizard fancies (line 16) which had provided and were to continue to provide a major underpinning for his creative work. In his concluding remarks to The Supernaturalism of New England, Whittier openly expresses his ambivalent feeling towards his subject: For the Supernaturalism of New