Poetry is not just for Valentine's Day cards. It can also be about political change.

Whittier is best known today as one of the Fireside Poets, a group of New England poets who wrote cozy verses about home and family. However, in his younger, wilder, social activism days, Whittier was a staunch abolitionist who used his pen for political purposes.

His first published poem, "The Exile's Departure" (1826), attracted the attention of William Lloyd Garrison, who encouraged Whittier to use his writing skills in the service of abolition. During the 1830s, Whittier wrote and spoke against slavery. In 1837, he published Poems Written During the Progress of the Abolition Question in the United States, Between the Years 1830 and 1838.

In the 1840s, Whittier broke with radical abolitionists like Garrison (as Douglass had) and decided to turn to political action to end slavery.

In the end, abolition required the pen, the vote, and the sword.