By John Greenleaf Whittier (1807 - 1892)

An Autograph

I WRITE my name as one, On sands by waves o’errun Or winter’s frosted pane, Traces a record vain.   Oblivion’s blankness claims Wiser and better names, And well my own may pass As from the strand or glass.   Wash on, O waves of time! Melt, noons, the frosty rime! Welcome the shadow vast, The silence that shall last!   When I and all who know And love me vanish so, What harm to them or me Will the lost memory be?   If any words of mine, Through right of life divine, Remain, what matters it Whose hand the message writ?   Why should the “crowner’s quest” Sit on my worst or best? Why should the showman claim The poor ghost of my name?   Yet, as when dies a sound Its spectre lingers round, Haply my spent life will Leave some faint echo still.   A whisper giving breath Of praise or blame to death, Soothing or saddening such As loved the living much.   Therefore with yearnings vain And fond I still would fain A kindly judgment seek, A tender thought bespeak.   And, while my words are read, Let this at least be said: “Whate’er his life’s defeatures, He loved his fellow-creatures.   “If, of the Law’s stone table, To hold he scarce was able The first great precept fast, He kept for man the last.   “Through mortal lapse and dulness What lacks the Eternal Fulness, If still our weakness can Love Him in loving man?   “Age brought him no despairing Of the world’s future faring; In human nature still He found more good than ill.   “To all who dumbly suffered, His tongue and pen he offered; His life was not his own, Nor lived for self alone.   “Hater of din and riot He lived in days unquiet; And, lover of all beauty, Trod the hard ways of duty.   “He meant no wrong to any, He sought the good of many, Yet knew both sin and folly,— May God forgive him wholly!”

Astræa

“JOVE means to settle Astræa in her seat again, And let down from his golden chain       An age of better metal.”—BEN JONSON, 1615.

O POET rare and old!   Thy words are prophecies; Forward the age of gold,   The new Saturnian lies.   The universal prayer   And hope are not in vain; Rise, brothers! and prepare   The way for Saturn’s reign.   Perish shall all which takes   From labor’s board and can; Perish shall all which makes   A spaniel of the man!   Free from its bonds the mind,   The body from the rod; Broken all chains that bind   The image of our God.   Just men no longer pine   Behind their prison-bars; Through the rent dungeon shine   The free sun and the stars.   Earth own, at last, untrod   By sect, or caste, or clan, The fatherhood of God,   The brotherhood of man!   Fraud fail, craft perish, forth   The money-changers driven, And God’s will done on earth,   As now in heaven!

Centennial Hymn

OUR fathers’ God! from out whose hand The centuries fall like grains of sand, We meet to-day, united, free, And loyal to our land and Thee, To thank Thee for the era done, And trust Thee for the opening one.   Here, where of old, by Thy design, The fathers spake that word of Thine Whose echo is the glad refrain Of rended bolt and falling chain, To grace our festal time, from all The zones of earth our guests we call.   Be with us while the New World greets The Old World thronging all its streets, Unveiling all the triumphs won By art or toil beneath the sun; And unto common good ordain This rivalship of hand and brain.   Thou, who hast here in concord furled The war flags of a gathered world, Beneath our Western skies fulfil The Orient’s mission of good-will, And, freighted with love’s Golden Fleece, Send back its Argonauts of peace.   For art and labor met in truce, For beauty made the bride of use, We thank Thee; but, withal, we crave The austere virtues strong to save, The honor proof to place or gold, The manhood never bought nor sold!   Oh make Thou us, through centuries long, In peace secure, in justice strong; Around our gift of freedom draw The safeguards of thy righteous law: And, cast in some diviner mould, Let the new cycle shame the old! 1876.

From “Snow-Bound”

THE WORLD TRANSFORMED UNWARMED by any sunset light The gray day darkened into night, A night made hoary with the swarm And whirl-dance of the blinding storm, As zigzag, wavering to and fro, Crossed and recrossed the wingëd snow: And ere the early bedtime came The white drift piled the window-frame, And through the glass the clothes-line posts Looked in like tall and sheeted ghosts.   So all night long the storm roared on: The morning broke without a sun; In tiny spherule traced with lines Of Nature’s geometric signs, In starry flake, and pellicle, All day the hoary meteor fell; And, when the second morning shone, We looked upon a world unknown, On nothing we could call our own. Around the glistening wonder bent The blue walls of the firmament, No cloud above, no earth below,— A universe of sky and snow! The old familiar sights of ours Took marvellous shapes; strange domes and towers Rose up where sty or corn-crib stood, Or garden-wall, or belt of wood; A smooth white mound the brush-pile showed, A fenceless drift what once was road; The bridle-post an old man sat With loose-flung coat and high cocked hat; The well-curb had a Chinese roof; And even the long sweep, high aloof, In its slant splendor, seemed to tell Of Pisa’s loaning miracle.   FIRELIGHT SHUT in from all the world without, We sat the clean-winged hearth about, Content to let the north-wind roar In baffled rage at pane and door, While the red logs before us beat The frost-line back with tropic heat; And ever, when a louder blast Shook beam and rafter as it passed, The merrier up its roaring draught The great throat of the chimney laughed; The house-dog on his paws outspread Laid to the fire his drowsy head, The cat’s dark silhouette on the wall A couchant tiger’s seemed to fall; And, for the winter fireside meet, Between the andirons’ straddling feet, The mug of cider simmered slow, The apples sputtered in a row, And, close at hand, the basket stood With nuts from brown October’s wood.   What matter how the night behaved? What matter how the north-wind raved? Blow high, blow low, not all its snow Could quench our hearth-fire’s ruddy glow. O Time and Change!—with hair as gray As was my sire’s that winter day, How strange it seems, with so much gone Of life and love, to still live on! Ah, brother! only I and thou Are left of all that circle now,— The dear home faces whereupon That fitful firelight paled and shone. Henceforward, listen as we will, The voices of that hearth are still; Look where we may, the wide earth o’er, Those lighted faces smile no more. We tread the paths their feet have worn,   We sit beneath their orchard-trees,   We hear, like them, the hum of bees And rustle of the bladed corn; We turn the pages that they read,   Their written words we linger o’er, But in the sun they cast no shade, No voice is heard, no sign is made,   No step is on the conscious floor! Yet Love will dream, and Faith will trust, (Since He who knows our need is just,) That somehow, somewhere, meet we must. Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through his cypress-trees! Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, Nor looks to see the breaking day Across the mournful marbles play! Who hath not learned, in hours of faith,   The truth to flesh and sense unknown, That Life is ever lord of Death,   And Love can never lose its own!   MOTHER Our mother, while she turned her wheel Or run the new-knit stocking-heel, Told how the Indian hordes came down At midnight on Cocheco town, And how her own great-uncle bore His cruel scalp-mark to fourscore. Recalling, in her fitting phrase,   So rich and picturesque and free,   (The common unrhymed poetry Of simple life and country ways,) The story of her early days,— She made us welcome to her home; Old hearths grew wide to give us room; We stole with her a frightened look At the gray wizard’s conjuring-book, The fame whereof went far and wide Through all the simple country-side; We heard the hawks at twilight play, The boat-horn on Piscataqua, The loon’s weird laughter far away; We fished her little trout-brook, knew What flowers in wood and meadow grew, What sunny hillsides autumn-brown She climbed to shake the ripe nuts down, Saw where in sheltered cove and bay The ducks’ black squadron anchored lay, And heard the wild geese calling loud Beneath the gray November cloud.   SISTER AS one who held herself a part Of all she saw, and let her heart   Against the household bosom lean, Upon the motley-braided mat Our youngest and our dearest sat, Lifting her large, sweet, asking eyes,   Now bathed in the unfading green And holy peace of Paradise. Oh, looking from some heavenly hill,   Or from the shade of saintly palms,   Or silver reach of river calms, Do those large eyes behold me still? With me one little year ago:— The chill weight of the winter snow   For months upon her grave has lain; And now, when summer south-winds blow   And brier and harebell bloom again, I tread the pleasant paths we trod, I see the violet-sprinkled sod Whereon she leaned, too frail and weak The hillside flowers she loved to seek, Yet following me where’er I went With dark eyes full of love’s content. The birds are glad; the brier-rose fills The air with sweetness; all the hills Stretch green to June’s unclouded sky; But still I wait with ear and eye For something gone which should be nigh, A loss all familiar things, In flower that blooms, and bird that sings. And yet, dear heart! remembering thee,   Am I not richer than of old? Safe in thy immortality,   What change can reach the wealth I hold?   What chance can mar the pearl and gold Thy love hath left in trust with me? And while in life’s late afternoon,   Where cool and long the shadows grow, I walk to meet the night that soon   Shall shape and shadow overflow, I cannot feel that thou art far, Since near at need the angels are; And when the sunset gates unbar,   Shall I not see thee waiting stand, And, white against the evening star,   The welcome of thy beckoning hand?   PROPHETESS ANOTHER guest that winter night Flashed back from lustrous eyes the light. Unmarked by time, and yet not young, The honeyed music of her tongue And words of meekness scarcely told A nature passionate and bold, Strong, self-concentred, spurning guide, Its milder features dwarfed beside Her unbent will’s majestic pride. She sat among us, at the best, A not unfeared, half-welcome guest, Rebuking with her cultured phrase Our homeliness of words and ways. A certain pard-like, treacherous grace Swayed the lithe limbs and dropped the lash, Lent the white teeth their dazzling flash; And under low brows, black with night, Rayed out at times a dangerous light; The sharp heat-lightnings of her face   Presaging ill to him whom Fate   Condemned to share her love or hate. A woman tropical, intense In thought and act, in soul and sense, She blended in a like degree The vixen and the devotee, Revealing with each freak or feint   The temper of Petruchio’s Kate, The raptures of Siena’s saint. Her tapering hand and rounded wrist Had facile power to form a fist; The warm, dark languish of her eyes Was never safe from wrath’s surprise. Brows saintly calm and lips devout Knew every change of scowl and pout; And the sweet voice had notes more high And shrill for social battle-cry.   Since then what old cathedral town Has missed her pilgrim staff and gown, What convent-gate has held its lock Against the challenge of her knock! Through Smyrna’s plague-hushed thorough-fares, Up sea-set Malta’s rocky stairs,   Gray olive slopes of hills that hem   Thy tombs and shrines, Jerusalem, Or startling on her desert throne The crazy Queen of Lebanon With claims fantastic as her own, Her tireless feet have held their way; And still, unrestful, bowed, and gray, She watches under Eastern skies,   With hope each day renewed and fresh,   The Lord’s quick coming in the flesh, Whereof she dreams and prophesies!

Ichabod

SO fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn     Which once he wore! The glory from his gray hairs gone     Forevermore!   Revile him not, the Tempter hath     A snare for all; And pitying tears, not scorn and wrath,     Befit his fall!   Oh, dumb be passion’s stormy rage,     When he who might Have lighted up and led his age,     Falls back in night.   Scorn! would the angels laugh, to mark     A bright soul driven, Fiend-goaded, down the endless dark,     From hope and heaven!   Let not the land once proud of him     Insult him now, Nor brand with deeper shame his dim,     Dishonored brow.   But let its humbled sons, instead,     From sea to lake, A long lament, as for the dead,     In sadness make.   Of all we loved and honored, naught     Save power remains; A fallen angel’s pride of thought,     Still strong in chains.   All else is gone; from those great eyes     The soul has fled: When faith is lost, when honor dies,     The man is dead!   Then, pay the reverence of old days     To his dead fame; Walk backward, with averted gaze,     And hide the shame!

In School-Days

STILL sits the school-house by the road,   A ragged beggar sunning; Around it still the sumachs grow,   And blackberry vines are running.   Within, the master’s desk is seen,   Deep scarred by raps official; The warping floor, the battered seats,   The jack-knife’s carved initial;   The charcoal frescos on its wall;   Its door’s worn sill, betraying The feet that, creeping slow to school,   Went storming out to playing!   Long years ago a winter sun   Shone over it at setting; Lit up its western window-panes,   And low eaves’ icy fretting.   It touched the tangled golden curls,   And brown eyes full of grieving, Of one who still her steps delayed   When all the school were leaving.   For near her stood the little boy   Her childish favor singled: His cap pulled low upon a face   Where pride and shame were mingled.   Pushing with restless feet the snow   To right and left, he lingered;— As restlessly her tiny hands   The blue-checked apron fingered.   He saw her lift her eyes; he felt   The soft hand’s light caressing, And heard the tremble of her voice,   As if a fault confessing.   “I ’m sorry that I spelt the word:   I hate to go above you, Because,”—the brown eyes lower fell,—   “Because, you see, I love you!”   Still memory to a gray-haired man   That sweet child-face is showing. Dear girl! the grasses on her grave   Have forty years been growing!   He lives to learn, in life’s hard school,   How few who pass above him Lament their triumph and his loss,   Like her,—because they love him. 1870.

In the “Old South”

SHE came and stood in the Old South Church   A wonder and a sign, With a look the old-time sibyls wore,   Half-crazed and half-divine.   Save the mournful sackcloth about her wound,   Unclothed as the primal mother, With limbs that trembled and eyes that blazed   With a fire she dare not smother.   Loose on her shoulders fell her hair,   With sprinkled ashes gray; She stood in the broad aisle strange and weird   As a soul at the judgment day.   And the minister paused in his sermon’s midst,   And the people held their breath, For these were the words the maiden spoke   Through lips as the lips of death:   “Thus saith the Lord, with equal feet   All men my courts shall tread, And priest and ruler no more shall eat   My people up like bread!   “Repent! repent! ere the Lord shall speak   In thunder and breaking seals! Let all souls worship Him in the way   His light within reveals.”   She shook the dust from her naked feet,   And her sackcloth closer drew, And into the porch of the awe-hushed church   She passed like a ghost from view.   They whipped her away at the tail o’ the cart   Through half the streets of the town, But the words she uttered that day nor fire   Could burn nor water drown.   And now the aisles of the ancient church   By equal feet are trod, And the bell that swings in its belfry rings   Freedom to worship God!   And now whenever a wrong is done   It thrills the conscious walls; The stone from the basement cries aloud   And the beam from the timber calls.   There are steeple-houses on every hand,   And pulpits that bless and ban, And the Lord will not grudge the single church   That is set apart for man.   For in two commandments are all the law   And the prophets under the sun, And the first is last and the last is first,   And the twain are verily one.   So long as Boston shall Boston be,   And her bay-tides rise and fall, Shall freedom stand in the Old South Church   And plead for the rights of all!

Maud Muller

MAUD MULLER on a summer’s day Raked the meadow sweet with hay.   Beneath her torn hat glowed the wealth Of simple beauty and rustic health.   Singing, she wrought, and her merry glee The mock-bird echoed from his tree.   But when she glanced to the far-off town, White from its hill-slope looking down,   The sweet song died, and a vague unrest And a nameless longing filled her breast,—   A wish that she hardly dared to own, For something better than she had known.   The Judge rode slowly down the lane, Smoothing his horse’s chestnut mane.   He drew his bridle in the shade Of the apple-trees, to greet the maid,   And asked a draught from the spring that flowed Through the meadow across the road.   She stooped where the cool spring bubbled up, And filled for him her small tin cup,   And blushed as she gave it, looking down On her feet so bare, and her tattered gown.   “Thanks!” said the Judge; “a sweeter draught From a fairer hand was never quaffed.”   He spoke of the grass and flowers and trees, Of the singing birds and the humming bees;   Then talked of the haying, and wondered whether The cloud in the west would bring foul weather.   And Maud forgot her brier-torn gown And her graceful ankles bare and brown;   And listened, while a pleased surprise Looked from her long-lashed hazel eyes.   At last, like one who for delay Seeks a vain excuse, he rode away.   Maud Muller looked and sighed: “Ah me! That I the Judge’s bride might be!   “He would dress me up in silks so fine, And praise and toast me at his wine.   “My father should wear a broadcloth coat; My brother should sail a painted boat.   “I ’d dress my mother so grand and gay, And the baby should have a new toy each day.   “And I ’d feed the hungry and clothe the poor, And all should bless me who left our door.”   The Judge looked back as he climbed the hill, And saw Maud Muller standing still.   “A form more fair, a face more sweet, Ne’er hath it been my lot to meet.   “And her modest answer and graceful air Show her wise and good as she is fair.   “Would she were mine, and I to-day, Like her, a harvester of hay;   “No doubtful balance of rights and wrongs, Nor weary lawyers with endless tongues,   “But low of cattle and song of birds, And health and quiet and loving words.”   But he thought of his sisters, proud and cold, And his mother, vain of her rank and gold.   So, closing his heart, the Judge rode on, And Maud was left in the field alone.   But the lawyers smiled that afternoon, When he hummed in court an old love-tune;   And the young girl mused beside the well Till the rain on the unraked clover fell.   He wedded a wife of richest dower, Who lived for fashion, as he for power.   Yet oft, in his marble hearth’s bright glow, He watched a picture come and go;   And sweet Maud Muller’s hazel eyes Looked out in their innocent surprise.   Oft, when the wine in his glass was red, He longed for the wayside well instead;   And closed his eyes on his garnished rooms To dream of meadows and clover-blooms.   And the proud man sighed, with a secret pain, “Ah, that I were free again!   “Free as when I rode that day, Where the barefoot maiden raked her hay.”   She wedded a man unlearned and poor, And many children played round her door   But care and sorrow, and childbirth pain, Left their traces on heart and brain.   And oft, when the summer sun shone hot On the new-mown hay in the meadow lot,   And she heard the little spring brook fall Over the roadside, through the wall,   In the shade of the apple-tree again She saw a rider draw his rein;   And, gazing down with timid grace, She felt his pleased eyes read her face.   Sometimes her narrow kitchen walls Stretched away into stately halls;   The weary wheel to a spinet turned, The tallow candle an astral burned,   And for him who sat by the chimney lug, Dozing and grumbling o’er pipe and mug,   A manly form at her side she saw, And joy was duty and love was law.   Then she took up her burden of life again, Saying only, “It might have been.”   Alas for maiden, alas for Judge, For rich repiner and household drudge!   God pity them both! and pity us all, Who vainly the dreams of youth recall.   For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: “It might have been!”   Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies Deeply buried from human eyes;   And, in the hereafter, angels may Roll the stone from its grave away!

Mulford

UNNOTED as the setting of a star   He passed; and sect and party scarcely knew   When from their midst a sage and seer withdrew To fitter audience, where the great dead are In God’s republic of the heart and mind, Leaving no purer, nobler soul behind.

Proem

(Written to Introduce the First General Collection of His Poems)

I LOVE the old melodious lays Which softly melt the ages through,     The songs of Spenser’s golden days,     Arcadian Sidney’s silvery phrase, Sprinkling our noon of time with freshest morning dew.       Yet, vainly in my quiet hours To breathe their marvellous notes I try;     I feel them, as the leaves and flowers     In silence feel the dewy showers, And drink with glad, still lips the blessing of the sky.       The rigor of a frozen clime, The harshness of an untaught ear,     The jarring words of one whose rhyme     Beat often Labor’s hurried time, Or Duty’s rugged march through storm and strife, are here.       Of mystic beauty, dreamy grace, No rounded art the lack supplies;     Unskilled the subtle lines to trace,     Or softer shades of Nature’s face, I view her common forms with unanointed eyes.       Nor mine the seer-like power to show The secrets of the heart and mind;     To drop the plummet-line below     Our common world of joy and woe, A more intense despair or brighter hope to find.       Yet here at least an earnest sense Of human right and weal is shown;     A hate of tyranny intense,     And hearty in its vehemence, As if my brother’s pain and sorrow were my own.       O Freedom! if to me belong Nor mighty Milton’s gift divine,     Nor Marvell’s wit and graceful song,     Still with a love as deep and strong As theirs, I lay, like them, my best gifts on thy shrine!

Skipper Ireson’s Ride

OF all the rides since the birth of time, Told in story or sung in rhyme,— On Apuleius’s Golden Ass, Or one-eyed Calendar’s horse of brass, Witch astride of a human back, Islam’s prophet on Al-Borák,— The strangest ride that ever was sped Was Ireson’s, out from Marblehead!   Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart,   Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart     By the women of Marblehead!   Body of turkey, head of owl, Wings adroop like a rained-on fowl, Feathered and ruffled in every part, Skipper Ireson stood in the cart. Scores of women, old and young, Strong of muscle, and glib of tongue, Pushed and pulled up the rocky lane, Shouting and singing the shrill refrain:   “Here ’s Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt,   Torr’d an’ futherr’d an’ corr’d in a corrt     By the women o’ Morble’ead!”   Wrinkled scolds with hands on hips, Girls in bloom of cheek and lips, Wild-eyed, free-limbed, such as chase Bacchus round some antique vase, Brief of skirt, with ankles bare, Loose of kerchief and loose of hair, With conch-shells blowing and fish-horns’ twang, Over and over the Mænads sang:   “Here ’s Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt,   Torr’d an’ futherr’d an’ corr’d in a corrt     By the women o’ Morble’ead!”   Small pity for him!—He sailed away From a leaking ship in Chaleur Bay,— Sailed away from a sinking wreck, With his own town’s-people on her deck! “Lay by! lay by!” they called to him. Back he answered, “Sink or swim! Brag of your catch of fish again!” And off he sailed through the fog and rain!   Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart,   Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart     By the women of Marblehead!   Fathoms deep in dark Chaleur That wreck shall lie forevermore. Mother and sister, wife and maid, Looked from the rocks of Marblehead Over the moaning and rainy sea,— Looked for the coming that might not be! What did the winds and the sea-birds say Of the cruel captain who sailed away?—   Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart,   Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart     By the women of Marblehead.   Through the street, on either side, Up flew windows, doors swung wide; Sharp-tongued spinsters, old wives gray, Treble lent the fish-horn’s bray. Sea-worn grandsires, cripple-bound, Hulks of old sailors run aground, Shook head, and fist, and hat, and cane, And cracked with curses the hoarse refrain:   “Here ’s Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt,   Torr’d an’ futherr’d an’ corr’d in a corrt     By the women o’ Morble’ead!”   Sweetly along the Salem road Bloom of orchard and lilac showed. Little the wicked skipper knew Of the fields so green and the sky so blue. Riding there in his sorry trim, Like an Indian idol glum and grim, Scarcely he seemed the sound to hear Of voices shouting, far and near:   “Here ’s Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt,   Torr’d an’ futherr’d an’ corr’d in a corrt     By the women o’ Morble’ead!”   “Hear me, neighbors!” at last he cried,— “What to me is this noisy ride? What is the shame that clothes the skin To the nameless horror that lives within? Waking or sleeping, I see a wreck, And hear a cry from a reeling deck! Hate me and curse me,—I only dread The hand of God and the face of the dead!”   Said old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart,   Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart     By the women of Marblehead!   Then the wife of the skipper lost at sea Said, “God has touched him! why should we!” Said an old wife mourning her only son, “Cut the rogue’s tether and let him run!” So with soft relentings and rude excuse, Half scorn, half pity, they cut him loose, And gave him a cloak to hide him in, And left him alone with his shame and sin.   Poor Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart,   Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart     By the women of Marblehead!

The Barefoot Boy

BLESSINGS on thee, little man, Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan! With thy turned-up pantaloons, And thy merry whistled tunes; With thy red lip, redder still Kissed by strawberries on the hill; With the sunshine on thy face, Through thy torn brim’s jaunty grace; From my heart I give thee joy,— I was once a barefoot boy! Prince thou art,—the grown-up man Only is republican. Let the million-dollared ride! Barefoot, trudging at his side, Thou hast more than he can buy In the reach of ear and eye,— Outward sunshine, inward joy: Blessings on thee, barefoot boy!   Oh for boyhood’s painless play, Sleep that wakes in laughing day, Health that mocks the doctor’s rules, Knowledge never learned of schools, Of the wild bee’s morning chase, Of the wild flower’s time and place, Flight of fowl and habitude Of the tenants of the wood; How the tortoise bears his shell, How the woodchuck digs his cell, And the ground-mole sinks his well; How the robin feeds her young, How the oriole’s nest is hung; Where the whitest lilies blow, Where the freshest berries grow, Where the ground-nut trails its vine, Where the wood-grape’s clusters shine; Of the black wasp’s cunning way, Mason of his walls of clay, And the architectural plans Of gray hornet artisans! For, eschewing books and tasks, Nature answers all he asks; Hand in hand with her he walks, Face to face with her he talks, Part and parcel of her joy,— Blessings on the barefoot boy!   Oh for boyhood’s time of June, Crowding years in one brief moon, When all things I heard or saw, Me, their master, waited for. I was rich in flowers and trees, Humming-birds and honey-bees; For my sport the squirrel played, Plied the snouted mole his spade; For my taste the blackberry cone Purpled over hedge and stone; Laughed the brook for my delight Through the day and through the night,— Whispering at the garden wall, Talked with me from fall to fall; Mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pond, Mine the walnut slopes beyond, Mine, on bending orchard trees, Apples of Hesperides! Still as my horizon grew, Larger grew my riches too; All the world I saw or knew Seemed a complex Chinese toy, Fashioned for a barefoot boy!   Oh for festal dainties spread, Like my bowl of milk and bread; Pewter spoon and bowl of wood, On the door-stone, gray and rude! O’er me, like a regal tent, Cloudy-ribbed, the sunset bent, Purple-curtained, fringed with gold, Looped in many a wind-swung fold; While for music came the play Of the pied frogs’ orchestra; And, to light the noisy choir, Lit the fly his lamp of fire. I was monarch: pomp and joy Waited on the barefoot boy!   Cheerily, then, my little man, Live and laugh, as boyhood can! Though the flinty slopes be hard, Stubble-speared the new-mown sward, Every morn shall lead thee through Fresh baptisms of the dew; Every evening from thy feet Shall the cool wind kiss the heat: All too soon these feet must hide In the prison cells of pride, Lose the freedom of the sod, Like a colt’s for work be shod, Made to tread the mills of toil, Up and down in ceaseless moil: Happy if their track be found Never on forbidden ground; Happy if they sink not in Quick and treacherous sands of sin. Ah! that thou couldst know thy joy, Ere it passes, barefoot boy!

The Eternal Goodness

O FRIENDS! with whom my feet have trod   The quiet aisles of prayer, Glad witness to your zeal for God   And love of man I bear.   I trace your lines of argument;   Your logic linked and strong I weigh as one who dreads dissent,   And fears a doubt as wrong.   But still my human hands are weak   To hold your iron creeds: Against the words ye bid me speak   My heart within me pleads.   Who fathoms the Eternal Thought?   Who talks of scheme and plan? The Lord is God! He needeth not   The poor device of man.   I walk with bare, hushed feet the ground   Ye tread with boldness shod; I dare not fix with mete and bound   The love and power of God.   Ye praise His justice; even such   His pitying love I deem: Ye seek a king; I fain would touch   The robe that hath no seam.   Ye see the curse which overbroods   A world of pain and loss; I hear our Lord’s beatitudes   And prayer upon the cross.   More than your schoolmen teach, within   Myself, alas! I know: Too dark ye cannot paint the sin,   Too small the merit show.   I bow my forehead to the dust,   I veil mine eyes for shame, And urge, in trembling self-distrust,   A prayer without a claim.   I see the wrong that round me lies,   I feel the guilt within; I hear, with groan and travail-cries,   The world confess its sin.   Yet, in the maddening maze of things,   And tossed by storm and flood, To one fixed trust my spirit clings;   I know that God is good!   Not mine to look where cherubim   And seraphs may not see, But nothing can be good in Him   Which evil is in me.   The wrong that pains my soul below   I dare not throne above, I know not of His hate,—I know   His goodness and His love.   I dimly guess from blessings known   Of greater out of sight, And, with the chastened Psalmist, own   His judgments too are right.   I long for household voices gone,   For vanished smiles I long, But God hath led my dear ones on,   And He can do no wrong.   I know not what the future hath   Of marvel or surprise, Assured alone that life and death   His mercy underlies.   And if my heart and flesh are weak   To bear an untried pain, The bruisëd reed He will not break,   But strengthen and sustain.   No offering of my own I have,   Nor works my faith to prove; I can but give the gifts He gave,   And plead His love for love.   And so beside the Silent Sea   I wait the muffled oar; No harm from Him can come to me   On ocean or on shore.   I know not where His islands lift   Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift   Beyond His love and care.   O brothers! if my faith is vain,   If hopes like these betray, Pray for me that my feet may gain   The sure and safer way.   And Thou, O Lord! by whom are seen   Thy creatures as they be, Forgive me if too close I lean   My human heart on Thee!

The Farewell

Of a Virginia Slave Mother to Her Daughters Sold into Southern Bondage

GONE, gone,—sold and gone,     To the rice-swamp dank and lone. Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings, Where the noisome insect stings, Where the fever demon strews Poison with the falling dews, Where the sickly sunbeams glare Through the hot and misty air;     Gone, gone,—sold and gone,     To the rice-swamp dank and lone,     From Virginia’s hills and waters;     Woe is me, my stolen daughters!       Gone, gone,—sold and gone,     To the rice-swamp dank and lone. There no mother’s eye is near them, There no mother’s ear can hear them; Never, when the torturing lash Seams their back with many a gash, Shall a mother’s kindness bless them, Or a mother’s arms caress them.     Gone, gone,—sold and gone,     To the rice-swamp dank and lone,     From Virginia’s hills and waters;     Woe is me, my stolen daughters!       Gone, gone,—sold and gone,     To the rice-swamp dank and lone. O, when weary, sad, and slow, From the fields at night they go, Faint with toil, and racked with pain, To their cheerless homes again, There no brother’s voice shall greet them; There no father’s welcome meet them.     Gone, gone,—sold and gone,     To the rice-swamp dank and lone,     From Virginia’s hills and waters;     Woe is me, my stolen daughters!       Gone, gone,—sold and gone,     To the rice-swamp dank and lone. From the tree whose shadow lay On their childhood’s place of play; From the cool spring where they drank; Rock, and hill, and rivulet bank; From the solemn house of prayer, And the holy counsels there;     Gone, gone,—sold and gone,     To the rice-swamp dank and lone,     From Virginia’s hills and waters;     Woe is me, my stolen daughters!       Gone, gone,—sold and gone,     To the rice-swamp dank and lone; Toiling through the weary day, And at night the spoiler’s prey. Oh, that they had earlier died, Sleeping calmly, side by side, Where the tyrant’s power is o’er, And the fetter galls no more!     Gone, gone,—sold and gone,     To the rice-swamp dank and lone,     From Virginia’s hills and waters;     Woe is me, my stolen daughters!       Gone, gone,—sold and gone,     To the rice-swamp dank and lone. By the holy love He beareth; By the bruisëd reed He spareth; Oh, may He, to whom alone All their cruel wrongs are known, Still their hope and refuge prove, With a more than mother’s love.     Gone, gone,—sold and gone,     To the rice-swamp dank and lone,     From Virginia’s hills and waters;     Woe is me, my stolen daughters!

The Swan Song of Parson Avery

WHEN the reaper’s task was ended, and the summer wearing late, Parson Avery sailed from Newbury, with his wife and children eight, Dropping down the river-harbor in the shallop “Watch and Wait.”   Pleasantly lay the clearings in the mellow summer-morn, With the newly planted orchards dropping their fruits first born, And the home-roofs like brown islands amid a sea of corn.   Broad meadows reached out seaward the tided creeks between, And hills rolled wave-like inland, with oaks and walnuts green: A fairer home, a goodlier land, his eyes had never seen.   Yet away sailed Parson Avery, away where duty led, And the voice of God seemed calling, to break the living bread To the souls of fishers starving on the rocks of Marblehead.   All day they sailed: at nightfall the pleasant land-breeze died, The blackening sky, at midnight, its starry lights denied, And far and low the thunder of tempest prophesied!   Blotted out were all the coast-lines, gone were rock, and wood, and sand; Grimly anxious stood the skipper with the rudder in his hand, And questioned of the darkness what was sea and what was land.   And the preacher heard his dear ones, nestled round him, weeping sore: “Never heed, my little children! Christ is walking on before To the pleasant land of heaven, where the sea shall be no more.”   All at once the great cloud parted, like a curtain drawn aside, To let down the torch of lightning on the terror far and wide; And the thunder and the whirlwind together smote the tide.   There was wailing in the shallop, woman’s wail and man’s despair, A crash of breaking timbers on the rocks so sharp and bare, And, through it all, the murmur of Father Avery’s prayer.   From his struggle in the darkness with the wild waves and the blast, On a rock, where every billow broke above him as it passed, Alone, of all his household, the man of God was cast.   There a comrade heard him praying, in the pause of wave and wind: “All my own have gone before me, and I linger just behind; Not for life I ask, but only for the rest Thy ransomed find!   “In this night of death I challenge the promise of Thy word!— Let me see the great salvation of which mine ears have heard!— Let me pass from hence forgiven, through the grace of Christ, our Lord!   “In the baptism of these waters wash white my every sin, And let me follow up to Thee my household and my kin! Open the sea-gate of Thy heaven, and let me enter in!”   When the Christian sings his death-song, all the listening heavens draw near, And the angels, leaning over the walls of crystal, hear How the notes so faint and broken swell to music in God’s ear.   The ear of God was open to His servant’s last request; As the strong wave swept him downward the sweet hymn upward pressed, And the soul of Father Avery went, singing, to its rest.   There was wailing on the mainland, from the rocks of Marblehead; In the stricken church of Newbury the notes of prayer were read; And long, by board and hearthstone, the living mourned the dead.   And still the fishers outbound, or scudding from the squall, With grave and reverent faces, the ancient tale recall, When they see the white waves breaking on the Rock of Avery’s Fall!

The Two Angels

GOD called the nearest angels who dwell with Him above: The tenderest one was Pity, the dearest one was Love.   “Arise,” He said, “my angels! a wail of woe and sin Steals through the gates of heaven, and saddens all within.   “My harps take up the mournful strain that from a lost world swells, The smoke of torment clouds the light and blights the asphodels.   “Fly downward to that under world, and on its souls of pain Let Love drop smiles like sunshine, and Pity tears like rain!”   Two faces bowed before the Throne, veiled in their golden hair; Four white wings lessened swiftly down the dark abyss of air.   The way was strange, the flight was long; at last the angels came Where swung the lost and nether world, red-wrapped in rayless flame.   There Pity, shuddering, wept; but Love, with faith too strong for fear, Took heart from God’s almightiness and smiled a smile of cheer.   And lo! that tear of Pity quenched the flame whereon it fell, And, with the sunshine of that smile, hope entered into hell!   Two unveiled faces full of joy looked up-ward to the Throne, Four white wings folded at the feet of Him who sat thereon!   And deeper than the sound of seas, more soft than falling flake, Amidst the hush of wing and song the Voice Eternal spake:   “Welcome, my angels! ye have brought a holier joy to heaven; Henceforth its sweetest song shall be the song of sin forgiven!”

The Vanishers

SWEETEST of all childlike dreams   In the simple Indian lore Still to me the legend seems   Of the shapes who flit before.   Flitting, passing, seen and gone,   Never reached nor found at rest, Baffling search, but beckoning on   To the Sunset of the Blest.   From the clefts of mountain rocks,   Through the dark of lowland firs, Flash the eyes and flow the locks   Of the mystic Vanishers!   And the fisher in his skiff,   And the hunter on the moss, Hear their call from cape and cliff,   See their hands the birch-leaves toss.   Wistful, longing, through the green   Twilight of the clustered pines, In their faces rarely seen   Beauty more than mortal shines.   Fringed with gold their mantles flow   On the slopes of westering knolls; In the wind they whisper low   Of the Sunset Land of Souls.   Doubt who may, O friend of mine!   Thou and I have seen them too; On before with beck and sign   Still they glide, and we pursue.   More than clouds of purple trail   In the gold of setting day; More than gleams of wing or sail   Beckon from the sea-mist gray.   Glimpses of immortal youth,   Gleams and glories seen and flown, Far-heard voices sweet with truth,   Airs from viewless Eden blown;   Beauty that eludes our grasp,   Sweetness that transcends our taste, Loving hands we may not clasp,   Shining feet that mock our haste;   Gentle eyes we closed below,   Tender voices heard once more, Smile and call us, as they go   On and onward, still before.   Guided thus, O friend of mine!   Let us walk our little way, Knowing by each beckoning sign   That we are not quite astray.   Chase we still, with baffled feet,   Smiling eye and waving hand, Sought and seeker soon shall meet,   Lost and found, in Sunset Land!

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