Born on November 17, 1873, in Spencer,
Indiana, William
Herschell was the oldest of six children born of Scottish immigrants.
Herschell’s
father’s job as a railroad worker kept the family frequently
moving around the southern part of Indiana, so William was exposed
to much of the landscape and environment in cities such as Rockport,
Evansville, and Princeton.
Herschell’s fondness of the Indiana environment served as a strong influence
on his poetry. While living in Spencer, Herschell often visited the State House
quarry where he drank from a spring later named “Long Boy” after
one of Herschell’s poems. Many of Herschell’s poems express a
love of waterways, streams, and rivers.
In “The Creek that Runs through Town,” (full
text) Herschell reflects on the juxtaposition of the natural beauty
of a creek with the ugliness of the
city. Personifying the creek, Herschell wonders “why
it wants to come to town.” Herschell ends the
poem with the optimistic supposition that the reason
the creek runs into town
is to lure the city
people into the
quiet respite
of the rural environment that Herschell treasures so
closely:
I sometimes
think a city creek
Of country birth pretends
To do these ugly, common things
For other happy ends. (45-46)
The Falls of Hoosierhaha
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Perhaps Herschell is most in
touch with his love of the waterways of his childhood in
the poem “The Falls of Hoosierhaha.” Herschell
writes of “leapin’,
laughin’, waters” near Pendleton,
Indiana,
that go “gigglin’ wiggling’,
roarin’ / Like a lot of little children on
a care-free holiday.” Herschell
links religious imagery to the water that “sings
a hallelulyer” to
express the extent of his fondness:
Oh, if there’s
no Hoosierhaha, when through Heaven I go soarin’,
I’ll
just tell the great Jehovah here is where I
want to stay! (166)
In
the poem “The Borrowed Cottage” Herschell
describes a trip to a friend’s cottage on Lake
Maxinkuckee in Culver,
Indiana, a
small town in the northwestern part of the state:
Oh, the joys they had
to lend
In this cottage of our friend;
There were birds out in the treetops
Singing welcomes without end.
Breezes romped up from the shore
As we opened wide each door;
Sunbeams swept in at the windows
For a dance across the floor. (160)
The joy that Herschell derives
from his encounters with nature is magnified by his frequent
use of overbearing rhymes in often
precise rhythmic
meter. Poems
like “The Borrowed Cottage” read like jingles
as if Herschell is proclaiming his love of “birds,” “breezes,” and “sunbeams” in
song rather than verse.
Herschell ponders the beauty
of the Tippecanoe River during a fishing trip in the poem “At
Monticello Dam” (full
text):
It’s on th’ good old Tippecanoe
an’ let
me here declare
Earth boasts no stream ner ocean any sweeter
anywhere.
Seems like it just comes laughin’ down from up ‘bove
Winamac,
Then hits old Monticello dam, jumps up an’ bounces
back. (122)
Herschell also stresses the value of nature
over industry and material possessions, a reoccurring theme
throughout
much of
his writing.
In “At Monticello Dam” Herschell
treasures his familiarity with the river and the recognition
that the river “merges
man hood with th’ day-dreams of a boy.” He
chides those people “with
yachts an’ mansions by the sea” because they
fail to experience the river in its most natural form—the
relationship between a man and the river.
Before becoming
a fairly well-known regional poet, Herschell was trained
as a blacksmith and adopted his father’s career as
a railroad worker which took him out of Indiana and into
Illinois and Canada. He quit the railroad after six
years and took a position writing for various newspapers
such as the Princeton Paper, the Evansville Journal, the
Terre Haute Tribune, and the Indianapolis
Press. In 1902, Herschell was asked to join the press of
the Indianapolis News where he began contributing poems
under the headline “Songs of the Streets
and Byways.” The poems featured in this weekly column
were collected in six volumes over a period of thirteen
years between 1915 and 1928.
Herschell’s
poems stressed the lives of the people of Indiana, his
love of the state, and especially his fondness and appreciation
for the
environment.
Herschell wrote the poems “The Hills of Indiana” (full
text) and “The
Road to Canaan” in praise of the Indiana
landscape, especially focusing on his love of the hills
in southwest Indiana. The relationship between children
and nature which is prevalent in much of Herschell’s
writing is especially evident in “The Hills of Indiana”:
The
hills of Indiana
Roll and tumble all about
As children do, at bedtime,
When they have their riot out.
The comradeship of nature
Is a comradeship of all;
The big hills never bully
Little hills because they’re small. (14)
The recurring
element of religious imagery evident in “The Falls
of Hoosierhaha” is
also apparent in “The Hills of Indiana”:
The
hills of Indiana
Seem to know and understand
They are celestial stairways
Fashioned by a Master-Hand.
They lead us up and upward
As through, in a friendly part,
When we fare forth to Heaven
They’ll give us a better start! (15)
Herschell’s
connection with nature is not limited to a worldly relationship
but extends beyond the realm
of the
material world
to include a connection
between nature and spirituality. Through nature, Herschell
discovers the relationship between himself and his
own spirituality.
"The Road to Canaan” also
links nature and spirituality through Herschell’s
fondness for the hills of Indiana:
The Road to Canaan!
Not the one of Bible-story thrills;
Mine magnifies the glory of the Indiana hills!
A good old Hoosier highway of the kind I like to say
Brings forth a hallelujah—come and ride with me today!
(105)
Herschell continues throughout the
poem to write of the similarity between the Biblical
Canaan
and the
Indiana
environment:
The other Canaan—Hoosier
town where humble folks abide—
How few indeed the earthly wants
that keep them satisfied;
Green fields and trees are comrades giving
everyday delight—
In Canaan conscience takes no toll when
they lie down at night. (107)
In “The Road to Canaan” as
in “At Monticello Dam,” Herschell
chides those who desire “earthly wants” when
the Indiana environment provides all that is necessary
for satisfaction. Herschell’s
spiritual connection with nature is so strong that
worldliness becomes insignificant
when held against the magnificence of nature.
Herschell’s
love of Indiana’s environment is perhaps best
expressed in one of his most popular poems, “Ain’t
God Good to Indiana”:
Ain’t God good to
Indiana?
Folks, a feller never knows
Just how close he is to Eden
Till, sometime, he ups an’ goes
Seekin’ fairer, greener pastures
Then he has right here at home,
Where there’s sunshine in th’ clover
An’ there’s honey in th’ comb;
Where th’ ripples on th’ river
Kind o’ chuckle as they flow—
Ain’t God good to Indiana?
Ain’t He, fellers? Ain’t He though? (69)
William
Herschell led a life and career inspired by his fondness
and deep appreciation of the land
and
people
of Indiana.
His poems reflect
a true
delight in being
a lifelong, devoted Hoosier who discovered his
inner youth and joy through writing of his deep, spiritual
connection
with the
environment
of his
homeland, Indiana.
--HAJ
Sources:
Esarey,
Logan. A History of Indiana from its Exploration to 1922. “William
Herschell.” Dayton, Ohio: Dayton Historical, 1924. 807.
Herschell,
William. Hitch and Come In. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill,
1928.
---. Howdy All and Other Care-free
Rhymes. Indianapolis:
Bobbs-Merrill, 1922.
---. The Smile-bringer and Other
Bits of Cheer. Indianapolis:
Bobbs-Merrill, 1926.
Images:
Herschell, William. The Smile-bringer and Other Bits of Cheer. Indianapolis:
Bobbs- Merrill, 1926. 165.
“
William Miller Herschell.” Indiana Journalism Hall
of Fame. 2003.
DePauw U Archives and Special Collections.
9 Dec. 2003 <http://www.depauw.edu/library/archives/ijhof/
inductees/Herschell.htm>.
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