I sent him a copy of the poem. He spoke of it as
a vigorous piece of work, but seemed to see no special merit in it.
I then sent it to "Knickerbocker's Magazine," where it was printed,
in December, I think, in 1862. It attracted no attention, and was
almost forgotten by me till many years afterwards when it appeared
in Whittier's "Songs of Three Centuries." This indorsement by
Whittier gave it vogue. It began to be copied by newspapers and
religious Journals, and it has been traveling on the wings of public
print ever since. I do not think it has any great poetic merit.
The secret of its success is its serious religious strain, or what
people interpret as such. It embodies a very comfortable optimistic
philosophy which it chants in a solemn, psalm-like voice. Its
sincerity carries conviction. It voices absolute faith and trust
in what, in the language of our fathers, would be called the ways of
God with man. I have often told persons, when they have questioned
me about the poem, that I came of the Old School Baptist stock,
and that these verses show what form the old Calvinistic doctrine
took in me.
Let me quote here the letter which Mr. Wasson wrote to the author of
"Waiting," on receiving the first autograph copy of it ever written:--
Worcester, Dec.
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