In my previous post, I proved beyond a doubt that Jonathan Plummer (1761 – 1819), the real-life jack-of-all trades who narrates my stories, was a classic nerd. But that didn’t prevent him from leaving a mark on his corner of New England. In an essay called “Yankee Gypsies,” the poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807 – 1892) remembers the “nimbus of immortality” that accompanied Plummer’s visits to Whittier’s boyhood hometown of Haverhill, Massachusetts. For extra credit, see if you can identify the line he stole from the poet Henry S. Ellenwood, quoted in the last post.*

The poet Whittier

Twice a year, usually in the spring and autumn, we were honored with a call from Jonathan Plummer, maker of verses, peddler and poet, physician and parson,—a Yankee troubadour,—first and last minstrel of the valley of the Merrimac, encircled, to my wondering young eyes, with the very nimbus of immortality. He brought with him pins, needles, tape, and cotton-thread for my mother; jack-knives, razors, and soap for my father; and verses of his own composing, coarsely printed and illustrated with rude wood-cuts, for the delectation of the younger branches of the family. No lovesick youth could drown himself, no deserted maiden bewail the moon, no rogue mount the gallows, without fitting memorial in Plummer’s verses. Earthquakes, fires, fevers, and shipwrecks he regarded as personal favors from Providence, furnishing the raw material of song and ballad. Welcome to us in our country seclusion as Autolycus to the clown in Winter’s Tale, we listened with infinite satisfaction to his readings of his own verses, or to his ready improvisation upon some domestic incident or topic suggested by his auditors. When once fairly over the difficulties at the outset of a new subject, his rhymes flowed freely, “as if he had eaten ballads and all men’s ears grew to his tunes.” His productions answered, as nearly as I can remember, to Shakespeare’s description of a proper ballad,—”doleful matter merrily set down, or a very pleasant theme sung lamentably.” He was scrupulously conscientious, devout, inclined to theological disquisitions, and withal mighty in Scripture. He was thoroughly independent; flattered nobody, cared for nobody, trusted nobody. When invited to sit down at our dinner-table, he invariably took the precaution to place his basket of valuables between his legs for safe keeping. “Never mind thy basket, Jonathan,” said my father; “we sha’n’t steal thy verses.”—”I’m not sure of that,” returned the suspicious guest. “It is written, ‘Trust ye not in any brother.'”