Meet the Author
William Ellery Channing
American · 1818–1901 · Poet
Portrait: Unknown, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A Concord poet and close friend of Thoreau, not to be confused with his uncle, the Unitarian minister of the same name.
1 StoryBites Edition1 Poem
Why read William Ellery Channing?
Channing wrote nature poetry in the Transcendentalist circle of Emerson and Thoreau, and his poems often find meaning in solitude. The Barren Moors turns a bleak, empty landscape into a refuge from ‘The agitating world’ and ends with the speaker standing ‘between two silent floors,’ the sky above and the moors below. Read it for its paradoxes of emptiness and fullness, and keep this poet separate from his uncle, the minister William Ellery Channing (1780 to 1842).
A life in six dates
- 1818Born in Boston
- 1841Marries Ellen Fuller, sister of Margaret Fuller
- 1843Publishes his first book, Poems
- 1847Publishes Poems, Second Series, including The Barren Moors
- 1873Publishes Thoreau: The Poet-Naturalist, a book about his late friend
- 1901Dies in Concord, Massachusetts
Themes across the work
The StoryBites Editions
Context that actually matters
TranscendentalismChanning belonged to the Concord circle, and Emerson championed his poetry in print.
Walking with ThoreauChanning was Thoreau’s frequent walking companion, and the two explored New England on foot together.
Two William Ellery ChanningsHis uncle (1780 to 1842) was the well-known Unitarian preacher, and library records sometimes credit the nephew’s poems to him.