My Symphony

William Ellery Channing

Not to be confused with his namesake uncle, Channing was a Transcendentalist poet born in Boston MA in 1817. He was befriended by Henry Thoreau, and praised and often published in the Transcendentalist's literary magazine The Dial by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Some speculation identifies him as the "Poet" of Thoreau's Walden; the two were frequent walking companions. During much of his time he had no fixed occupation, though for a while, in 1855-1856, he was one of the editors of the New Bedford Mercury. In all his wanderings and residences his artist eye was constantly seeking out the finest landscapes, and his sauntering habit was to take his friends and introduce them to scenery they could hardly have found for themselves. He died December 23, 1901 in Concord Massachusetts. more…

All William Ellery Channing poems | William Ellery Channing Books