[ { "title": "The Pipes At Lucknow", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "Pipes of the misty moorlands,", "Voice of the glens and hills;", "The droning of the torrents,", "The treble of the rills!", "Not the braes of bloom and heather,", "Nor the mountains dark with rain,", "Nor maiden bower, nor border tower,", "Have heard your sweetest strain!", "", "Dear to the Lowland reaper,", "And plaided mountaineer, -", "To the cottage and the castle", "The Scottish pipes are dear; -", "Sweet sounds the ancient pibroch", "O'er mountain, loch, and glade;", "But the sweetest of all music", "The pipes at Lucknow played.", "", "Day by day the Indian tiger", "Louder yelled, and nearer crept;", "Round and round the jungle-serpent", "Near and nearer circles swept.", "'Pray for rescue, wives and mothers, -", "Pray to-day!' the soldier said;", "'To-morrow, death's between us", "And the wrong and shame we dread.'", "", "Oh, they listened, looked, and waited,", "Till their hope became despair;", "And the sobs of low bewailing", "Filled the pauses of their prayer.", "Then up spake a Scottish maiden.", "With her ear unto the ground:", "'Dinna ye hear it? - dinna ye hear it?", "The pipes o' Havelock sound!'", "", "Hushed the wounded man his groaning;", "Hushed the wife her little ones;", "Alone they heard the drum-roll", "And the roar of Sepoy guns.", "But to sounds of home and childhood", "The Highland ear was true; -", "As her mother's cradle-crooning", "The mountain pipes she knew.", "", "Like the march of soundless music", "Through the vision of the seer,", "More of feeling than of hearing,", "Of the heart than of the ear,", "She knew the droning pibroch,", "She knew the Campbell's call:", "'Hark! hear ye no MacGregor's,", "The grandest o' them all!'", "", "Oh, they listened, dumb and breathless,", "And they caught the sound at last;", "Faint and far beyond the Goomtee", "Rose and fell the piper's blast!", "Then a burst of wild thanksgiving", "Mingled woman's voice and man's;", "'God be praised! - the march of Havelock!", "The piping of the clans!'", "", "Louder, nearer, fierce as vengeance,", "Sharp and shrill as swords at strife,", "Came the wild MacGregor's clan-call,", "Stinging all the air to life.", "But when the far-off dust-cloud", "To plaided legions grew,", "Full tenderly and blithesomely", "The pipes of rescue blew!", "", "Round the silver domes of Lucknow.", "Moslem mosque and Pagan shrine,", "Breathed the air to Britons dearest,", "The air of Auld Lang Syne.", "O'er the cruel roll of war-drums", "Rose that sweet and homelike strain;", "And the tartan clove the turban,", "As the Goomtee cleaves the plain.", "", "Dear to the corn-land reaper", "And plaided mountaineer, -", "To the cottage and the castle", "The piper's song is dear.", "Sweet sounds the Gaelic pibroch", "O'er mountain, glen, and glade;", "But the sweetest of all music", "The pipes at Lucknow played!" ], "linecount": "80" }, { "title": "A Word for the Hour", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "The firmament breaks up. In black eclipse", "Light after light goes out. One evil star,", "Luridly glaring through the smoke of war,", "As in the dream of the Apocalypse,", "Drags others down. Let us not weakly weep", "Nor rashly threaten. Give us grace to keep", "Our faith and patience; wherefore should we leap", "On one hand into fratricidal fight,", "Or, on the other, yield eternal right,", "Frame lies of laws, and good and ill confound?", "What fear we? Safe on freedom's vantage ground", "Our feet are planted; let us there remain", "In unrevengeful calm, no means untried", "Which truth can sanction, no just claim denied,", "The sad spectators of a suicide!", "They break the lines of Union: shall we light", "The fires of hell to weld anew the chain", "On that red anvil where each blow is pain?", "Draw we not even now a freer breath,", "As from our shoulders falls a load of death", "Loathsome as that the Tuscan's victim bore", "When keen with life to a dead horror bound?", "Why take we up the accursed thing again?", "Pity, forgive, but urge them back no more", "Who, drunk with passion, flaunt disunion's rag", "With its vile reptile blazon. Let us press", "The golden cluster on our brave old flag", "In closer union, and, if numbering less,", "Brighter shall shine the stars which still remain." ], "linecount": "29" }, { "title": "The Pumpkin", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,", "The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,", "And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,", "With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,", "Like that which o'er Nineveh's prophet once grew,", "While he waited to know that his warning was true,", "And longed for the storm-cloud, and listened in vain", "For the rush of the whirlwind and red fire-rain.", "", "On the banks of the Xenil the dark Spanish maiden", "Comes up with the fruit of the tangled vine laden;", "And the Creole of Cuba laughs out to behold", "Through orange-leaves shining the broad spheres of gold;", "Yet with dearer delight from his home in the North,", "On the fields of his harvest the Yankee looks forth,", "Where crook-necks are coiling and yellow fruit shines,", "And the sun of September melts down on his vines.", "", "Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,", "From North and from South comes the pilgrim and guest;", "When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board", "The old broken links of affection restored;", "When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,", "And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before;", "What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye,", "What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?", "", "Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling,", "When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!", "When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,", "Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!", "When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,", "Our chair a broad pumpkin, -- our lantern the moon,", "Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam", "In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!", "", "Then thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better", "E'er smoked from an oven or circled a platter!", "Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,", "Brighter eyes never watched o'er its baking, than thine!", "And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,", "Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,", "That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,", "And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,", "And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky", "Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie!" ], "linecount": "42" }, { "title": "The Changeling ( From The Tent on the Beach )", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "FOR the fairest maid in Hampton", "They needed not to search,", "Who saw young Anna favor", "Come walking into church,--", "", "Or bringing from the meadows,", "At set of harvest-day,", "The frolic of the blackbirds,", "The sweetness of the hay.", "", "Now the weariest of all mothers,", "The saddest two years' bride,", "She scowls in the face of her husband,", "And spurns her child aside.", "", "\"Rake out the red coals, goodman,--", "For there the child shall lie,", "Till the black witch comes to fetch her", "And both up chimney fly.", "", "\"It's never my own little daughter,", "It's never my own,\" she said;", "\"The witches have stolen my Anna,", "And left me an imp instead.", "", "\"Oh, fair and sweet was my baby,", "Blue eyes, and hair of gold;", "But this is ugly and wrinkled,", "Cross, and cunning, and old.", "", "\"I hate the touch of her fingers,", "I hate the feel of her skin;", "It's not the milk from my bosom,", "But my blood, that she sucks in.", "", "\"My face grows sharp with the torment;", "Look! my arms are skin and bone!", "Rake open the red coals, goodman,", "And the witch shall have her own.", "", "\"She'll come when she hears it crying,", "In the shape of an owl or bat,", "And she'll bring us our darling Anna", "In place of her screeching brat.\"", "", "Then the goodman, Ezra Dalton,", "Laid his hand upon her head:", "Thy sorrow is great, O woman!", "I sorrow with thee,\" he said.", "", "\"The paths to trouble are many", "And never but one sure way", "Leads out to the light beyond it:", "My poor wife, let us pray.\"", "", "Then he said to the great All-Father,", "\"Thy daughter is weak and blind;", "Let her sight come back, and clothe her", "Once more in her right mind.", "", "\"Lead her out of this evil shadow,", "Out of these fancies wild;", "Let the holy love of the mother", "Turn again to her child.", "", "\"Make her lips like the lips of Mary", "Kissing her blessed Son;", "Let her hands, like the hands of Jesus,", "Rest on her little one.", "", "\"Comfort the soul of thy handmaid,", "Open her prison-door,", "And thine shall be all the glory", "And praise forevermore.\"", "", "Then into the face of its mother", "The baby looked up and smiled;", "And the cloud of her soul was lifted,", "And she knew her little child.", "", "A beam of the slant west sunshine", "Made the wan face almost fair,", "Lit the blue eyes' patient wonder", "And the rings of pale gold hair.", "", "She kissed it on lip and forehead,", "She kissed it on cheek and chink", "And she bared her snow-white bosom", "To the lips so pale and thin.", "", "Oh, fair on her bridal morning", "Was the maid who blushed and smiled,", "But fairer to Ezra Dalton", "Looked the mother of his child.", "", "With more than a lover's fondness", "He stooped to her worn young face,", "And the nursing child and the mother", "He folded in one embrace.", "", "\"Blessed be God!\" he murmured.", "\"Blessed be God!\" she said;", "\"For I see, who once was blinded,--", "I live, who once was dead.", "", "\"Now mount and ride, my goodman,", "As thou lovest thy own soul!", "Woe's me, if my wicked fancies", "Be the death of Goody Cole!\"", "", "His horse he saddled and bridled,", "And into the night rode he,", "Now through the great black woodland,", "Now by the white-beached sea.", "", "He rode through the silent clearings,", "He came to the ferry wide,", "And thrice he called to the boatman", "Asleep on the other side.", "", "He set his horse to the river,", "He swam to Newbury town,", "And he called up Justice Sewall", "In his nightcap and his gown.", "", "And the grave and worshipful justice", "(Upon whose soul be peace!)", "Set his name to the jailer's warrant", "For Goodwife Cole's release.", "", "Then through the night the hoof-beats", "Went sounding like a flail;", "And Goody Cole at cockcrow", "Came forth from Ipswich jail." ], "linecount": "108" }, { "title": "The Farewell", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "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,", "Oh, 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 sprmg 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 bruised 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!" ], "linecount": "73" }, { "title": "Kallundborg Church ( From The Tent on the Beach)", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "\"Tie stille, barn min!", "Imorgen kommer Fin,", "Fa'er din,", "Og gi'er dich Esbern Snares öine og hjerte at lege med!\"", "Zealand Rhyme.", "", "", "\"BUILD at Kallundborg by the sea", "A church as stately as church may be,", "And there shalt thou wed my daughter fair,\"", "Said the Lord of Nesvek to Esbern Snare.", "", "And the Baron laughed. But Esbern said,", "\"Though I lose my soul, I will Helva wed!\"", "And off he strode, in his pride of will,", "To the Troll who dwelt in Ulshoi hill.", "", "\"Build, O Troll, a church for me", "At Kallundborg by the mighty sea;", "Build it stately, and build it fair,", "Build it quickly,\" said Esbern Snare.", "", "But the sly Dwarf said, \"No work is wrought", "By Trolls of the Hills, O man, for naught.", "What wilt thou give for thy church so fair?\"", "\"Set thy own price,\" quoth Esbern Snare.", "", "\"When Kallundborg church is builded well,", "Thou must the name of its builder tell,", "Or thy heart and thy eyes must be my boon.\"", "\"Build,\" said Esbern, \"and build it soon.\"", "", "By night and by day the Troll wrought on;", "He hewed the timbers, he piled the stone;", "But day by day, as the walls rose fair,", "Darker and sadder grew Esbern Snare.", "", "He listened by night, he watched by day,", "He sought and thought, but he dared not pray;", "In vain he called on the Elle-maids shy,", "And the Neck and the Nis gave no reply.", "", "Of his evil bargain far and wide", "A rumor ran through the country-side;", "And Helva of Nesvek, young and fair,", "Prayed for the soul of Esbern Snare.", "", "And now the church was wellnigh done;", "One pillar it lacked, and one alone;", "And the grim Troll muttered, \"Fool thou art!", "To-morrow gives me thy eyes and heart!\"", "", "By Kallundborg in black despair,", "Through wood and meadow, walked Esbern Snare,", "Till, worn and weary, the strong man sank", "Under the birches on Ulshoi bank.", "", "At his last day's work he heard the Troll", "Hammer and delve in the quarry's hole;", "Before him the church stood large and fair:", "\"I have builded my tomb,\" said Esbern Snare.", "", "And he closed his eyes the sight to hide,", "When he heard a light step at his side:", "\"O Esbern Snare! a sweet voice said,", "\"Would I might die now in thy stead!\"", "", "With a grasp by love and by fear made strong,", "He held her fast, and he held her long;", "With the beating heart of a bird afeard,", "She hid her face in his flame-red beard.", "", "\"O love!\" he cried, \"let me look to-day", "In thine eyes ere mine are plucked away;", "Let me hold thee close, let me feel thy heart", "Ere mine by the Troll is torn apart!", "", "\"I sinned, O Helva, for love of thee!", "Pray that the Lord Christ pardon me!\"", "But fast as she prayed, and faster still,", "Hammered the Troll in Ulshoi hill.", "", "He knew, as he wrought, that a loving heart", "Was somehow baffling his evil art;", "For more than spell of Elf or Troll", "Is a maiden's prayer for her lover's soul.", "", "And Esbern listened, and caught the sound", "Of a Troll-wife singing underground:", "\"To-morrow comes Fine, father thine:", "Lie still and hush thee, baby mine!", "", "\"Lie still, my darling! next sunrise", "Thou'lt play with Esbern Snare's heart and eyes!\"", "\"Ho! ho!\" quoth Esbern, \"is that your game?", "Thanks to the Troll-wife, I know his name!\"", "", "The Troll he heard him, and hurried on", "To Kallundborg church with the lacking stone.", "\"Too late, Gaffer Fine!\" cried Esbern Snare;", "And Troll and pillar vanished in air!", "", "That night the harvesters heard the sound", "Of a woman sobbing underground,", "And the voice of the Hill-Troll loud with blame", "Of the careless singer who told his name.", "", "Of the Troll of the Church they sing the rune", "By the Northern Sea in the harvest moon;", "And the fishers of Zealand hear him still", "Scolding his wife in Ulshoi hill.", "", "And seaward over its groves of birch", "Still looks the tower of Kallundborg church", "Where, first at its altar, a wedded pair,", "Stood Helva of Nesvek and Esbern Snare!" ], "linecount": "93" }, { "title": "My Triumph", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "The autumn-time has come;", "On woods that dream of bloom,", "And over purpling vines,", "The low sun fainter shines.", "", "The aster-flower is failing,", "The hazel's gold is paling;", "Yet overhead more near", "The eternal stars appear!", "", "And present gratitude", "Insures the future's good,", "And for the things I see", "I trust the things to be;", "", "That in the paths untrod,", "And the long days of God,", "My feet shall still be led,", "My heart be comforted.", "", "O living friends who love me!", "O dear ones gone above me!", "Careless of other fame,", "I leave to you my name.", "", "Hide it from idle praises,", "Save it from evil phrases:", "Why, when dear lips that spake it", "Are dumb, should strangers wake it?", "", "Let the thick curtain fall;", "I better know than all", "How little I have gained,", "How vast the unattained.", "", "Not by the page word-painted", "Let life be banned or sainted:", "Deeper than written scroll", "The colors of the soul.", "", "Sweeter than any sung", "My songs that found no tongue;", "Nobler than any fact", "My wish that failed of act.", "", "Others shall sing the song,", "Others shall right the wrong, --", "Finish what I begin,", "And all I fail of win.", "", "What matter, I or they?", "Mine or another's day,", "So the right word be said", "And life the sweeter made?", "", "Hail to the coming singers!", "Hail to the brave light-bringers!", "Forward I reach and share", "All that they sing and dare.", "", "The airs of heaven blow o'er me;", "A glory shines before me", "Of what mankind shall be, --", "Pure, generous, brave, and free.", "", "A dream of man and woman", "Diviner but still human,", "Solving the riddle old,", "Shaping the Age of Gold!", "", "The love of God and neighbor;", "An equal-handed labor;", "The richer life, where beauty", "Walks hand in hand with duty.", "", "Ring, bells in unreared steeples,", "The joy of unborn peoples!", "Sound, trumpets far off blown,", "Your triumph is my own!", "", "Parcel and part of all,", "I keep the festival,", "Fore-reach the good to be,", "And share the victory.", "", "I feel the earth move sunward,", "I join the great march onward,", "And take, by faith, while living,", "My freehold of thanksgiving." ], "linecount": "72" }, { "title": "Flowers in Winter", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "How strange to greet, this frosty morn,", "In graceful counterfeit of flower,", "These children of the meadows, born", "Of sunshine and of showers!", "", "How well the conscious wood retains", "The pictures of its flower-sown home,", "The lights and shades, the purple stains,", "And golden hues of bloom!", "", "It was a happy thought to bring", "To the dark season's frost and rime", "This painted memory of spring,", "This dream of summertime.", "", "Our hearts are lighter for its sake,", "Our fancy's age renews its youth,", "And dim-remembered fictions take", "The guise of present truth.", "", "A wizard of the Merrimac, -", "So old ancestral legends say, -", "Could call green leaf and blossom back", "To frosted stem and spray.", "", "The dry logs of the cottage wall,", "Beneath his touch, put out their leaves;", "The clay-bound swallow, at his call,", "Played round the icy eaves.", "", "The settler saw his oaken flail", "Take bud, and bloom before his eyes;", "From frozen pools he saw the pale", "Sweet summer lilies rise.", "", "To their old homes, by man profaned", "Came the sad dryads, exiled long,", "And through their leafy tongues complained", "Of household use and wrong.", "", "The beechen platter sprouted wild,", "The pipkin wore its old-time green,", "The cradle o'er the sleeping child", "Became a leafy screen.", "", "Haply our gentle friend hath met,", "While wandering in her sylvan quest,", "Haunting his native woodlands yet,", "That Druid of the West;", "", "And while the dew on leaf and flower", "Glistened in the moonlight clear and still,", "Learned the dusk wizard's spell of power,", "And caught his trick of skill.", "", "But welcome, be it new or old,", "The gift which makes the day more bright,", "And paints, upon the ground of cold", "And darkness, warmth and light!", "", "Without is neither gold nor green;", "Within, for birds, the birch-logs sing;", "Yet, summer-like, we sit between", "The autumn and the spring.", "", "The one, with bridal blush of rose,", "And sweetest breath of woodland balm,", "And one whose matron lips unclose", "In smiles of saintly calm.", "", "Fill soft and deep, O winter snow!", "The sweet azalea's oaken dells,", "And hide the banks where roses blow", "And swing the azure bells!", "", "O'erlay the amber violet's leaves,", "The purple aster's brookside home,", "Guard all the flowers her pencil gives", "A live beyond their bloom.", "", "And she, when spring comes round again,", "By greening slope and singing flood", "Shall wander, seeking, not in vain", "Her darlings of the wood." ], "linecount": "68" }, { "title": "Snowbound, a Winter Idyl", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "To the Memory of the Household It Describes", "", "This Poem is Dedicated by the Author", "", "\"As the Spirit of Darkness be stronger in the dark, so Good Spirits, which be Angels of Light, are augmented not only by the Divine light of the Sun, but also by our common Wood Fire: and as the Celestial Fire drives away dark spirits, so also this our fire of Wood doth the same.\"", "Cor. Agrippa, Occult Philosophy, Book I, ch. v.", "", "", "\"Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,", "Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,", "Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air", "Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,", "And veils the farm-house at the garden's end.", "The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet", "Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit", "Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed", "In a tumultuous privacy of Storm.\"", "Emerson,The Snow Storm.", "", "", "The sun that brief December day", "Rose cheerless over hills of gray,", "And, darkly circled, gave at noon", "A sadder light than waning moon.", "Slow tracing down the thickening sky", "Its mute and ominous prophecy,", "A portent seeming less than threat,", "It sank from sight before it set.", "A chill no coat, however stout,", "Of homespun stuff could quite shut out,", "A hard, dull bitterness of cold,", "That checked, mid-vein, the circling race", "Of life-blood in the sharpened face,", "The coming of the snow-storm told.", "The wind blew east; we heard the roar", "Of Ocean on his wintry shore,", "And felt the strong pulse throbbing there", "Beat with low rhythm our inland air.", "Meanwhile we did our nightly chores,", "Brought in the wood from out the doors,", "Littered the stalls, and from the mows", "Raked down the herd's-grass for the cows;", "Heard the horse whinnying for his corn;", "And, sharply clashing horn on horn,", "Impatient down the stanchion rows", "The cattle shake their walnut bows;", "While, peering from his early perch", "Upon the scaffold's pole of birch,", "The cock his crested helmet bent", "And down his querulous challenge sent.", "", "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.", "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 spendor, seemed to tell", "Of Pisa's leaning miracle.", "", "A prompt, decisive man, no breath", "Our father wasted: \"Boys, a path!\"", "Well pleased (for when did farmer boy", "Count such a summons less than joy?)", "Our buskins on our feet we drew;", "With mittened hands, and caps drawn low,", "To guard our necks and ears from snow,", "We cut the solid whiteness through.", "And, where the drift was deepest, made", "A tunnel walled and overlaid", "With dazzling crystal: we had read", "Of rare Aladdin's wondrous cave,", "And to our own his name we gave,", "With many a wish the luck were ours", "To test his lamp's supernal powers.", "We reached the barn with merry din,", "And roused the prisoned brutes within.", "The old horse thrust his long head out,", "And grave with wonder gazed about;", "The cock his lusty greeting said,", "And forth his speckled harem led;", "The oxen lashed their tails, and hooked,", "And mild reproach of hunger looked;", "The hornëd patriarch of the sheep,", "Like Egypt's Amun roused from sleep,", "Shook his sage head with gesture mute,", "And emphasized with stamp of foot.", "", "All day the gusty north-wind bore", "The loosening drift its breath before;", "Low circling round its southern zone,", "The sun through dazzling snow-mist shone.", "No church-bell lent its Christian tone", "To the savage air, no social smoke", "Curled over woods of snow-hung oak.", "A solitude made more intense", "By dreary-voicëd elements,", "The shrieking of the mindless wind,", "The moaning tree-boughs swaying blind,", "And on the glass the unmeaning beat", "Of ghostly finger-tips of sleet.", "Beyond the circle of our hearth", "No welcome sound of toil or mirth", "Unbound the spell, and testified", "Of human life and thought outside.", "We minded that the sharpest ear", "The buried brooklet could not hear,", "The music of whose liquid lip", "Had been to us companionship,", "And, in our lonely life, had grown", "To have an almost human tone.", "", "As night drew on, and, from the crest", "Of wooded knolls that ridged the west,", "The sun, a snow-blown traveller, sank", "From sight beneath the smothering bank,", "We piled, with care, our nightly stack", "Of wood against the chimney-back, --", "The oaken log, green, huge, and thick,", "And on its top the stout back-stick;", "The knotty forestick laid apart,", "And filled between with curious art", "The ragged brush; then, hovering near,", "We watched the first red blaze appear,", "Heard the sharp crackle, caught the gleam", "On whitewashed wall and sagging beam,", "Until the old, rude-furnished room", "Burst, flower-like, into rosy bloom;", "While radiant with a mimic flame", "Outside the sparkling drift became,", "And through the bare-boughed lilac-tree", "Our own warm hearth seemed blazing free.", "The crane and pendent trammels showed,", "The Turks' heads on the andirons glowed;", "While childish fancy, prompt to tell", "The meaning of the miracle,", "Whispered the old rhyme: \"Under the tree,", "When fire outdoors burns merrily,", "There the witches are making tea.\"", "The moon above the eastern wood", "Shone at its full; the hill-range stood", "Transfigured in the silver flood,", "Its blown snows flashing cold and keen,", "Dead white, save where some sharp ravine", "Took shadow, or the sombre green", "Of hemlocks turned to pitchy black", "Against the whiteness at their back.", "For such a world and such a night", "Most fitting that unwarming light,", "Which only seemd where'er it fell", "To make the coldness visible.", "", "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 mourful 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!", "", "We sped the time with stories old,", "Wrought puzzles out, and riddles told,", "Or stammered from our school-book lore", "\"The Chief of Gambia's golden shore.\"", "How often since, when all the land", "Was clay in Slavery's shaping hand,", "As if a far-blown trumpet stirred", "The languorous sin-sick air, I heard:", "\"Does not the voice of reason cry,", "Claim the first right which Nature gave,", "From the red scourge of bondage to fly,", "Nor deign to live a burdened slave!\"", "Our father rode again his ride", "On Memphremagog's wooded side;", "Sat down again to moose and samp", "In trapper's hut and Indian camp;", "Lived o'er the old idyllic ease", "Beneath St. François' hemlock-trees;", "Again for him the moonlight shone", "On Norman cap and bodiced zone;", "Again he heard the violin play", "Which led the village dance away,", "And mingled in its merry whirl", "The grandam and the laughing girl.", "Or, nearer home, our steps he led", "Where Salisbury's level marshes spread", "Mile-wide as flied the laden bee;", "Where merry mowers, hale and strong,", "Swept, scythe on scythe, their swaths along", "The low green prairies of the sea.", "We shared the fishing off Boar's Head,", "And round the rocky Isles of Shoals", "The hake-broil on the drift-wood coals;", "The chowder on the sand-beach made,", "Dipped by the hungry, steaming hot,", "With spoons of clam-shell from the pot.", "We heard the tales of witchcraft old,", "And dream and sign and marvel told", "To sleepy listeners as they lay", "Stretched idly on the salted hay,", "Adrift along the winding shores,", "When favoring breezes deigned to blow", "The square sail of the gundelow", "And idle lay the useless oars.", "", "Our mother, while she turned her wheel", "Or run the new-knit stocking-heel,", "Told how the Indian hordes came down", "At midnight on Concheco 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.", "Then, haply, with a look more grave,", "And soberer tone, some tale she gave", "From painful Sewel's ancient tome,", "Beloved in every Quaker home,", "Of faith fire-winged by martyrdom,", "Or Chalkley's Journal, old and quaint, --", "Gentlest of skippers, rare sea-saint! --", "Who, when the dreary calms prevailed,", "And water-butt and bread-cask failed,", "And cruel, hungry eyes pursued", "His portly presence, mad for food,", "With dark hints muttered under breath", "Of casting lots for life or death,", "Offered, if Heaven withheld supplies,", "To be himself the sacrifice.", "Then, suddenly, as if to save", "The good man from his living grave,", "A ripple on the water grew,", "A school of porpoise flashed in view.", "\"Take, eat,\" he said, \"and be content;", "These fishes in my stead are sent", "By Him who gave the tangled ram", "To spare the child of Abraham.\"", "", "Our uncle, innocent of books,", "Was rich in lore of fields and brooks,", "The ancient teachers never dumb", "Of Nature's unhoused lyceum.", "In moons and tides and weather wise,", "He read the clouds as prophecies,", "And foul or fair could well divine,", "By many an occult hint and sign,", "Holding the cunning-warded keys", "To all the woodcraft mysteries;", "Himself to Nature's heart so near", "That all her voices in his ear", "Of beast or bird had meanings clear,", "Like Apollonius of old,", "Who knew the tales the sparrows told,", "Or Hermes, who interpreted", "What the sage cranes of Nilus said;", "A simple, guileless, childlike man,", "Content to live where life began;", "Strong only on his native grounds,", "The little world of sights and sounds", "Whose girdle was the parish bounds,", "Whereof his fondly partial pride", "The common features magnified,", "As Surrey hills to mountains grew", "In White of Selborne's loving view, --", "He told how teal and loon he shot,", "And how the eagle's eggs he got,", "The feats on pond and river done,", "The prodigies of rod and gun;", "Till, warming with the tales he told,", "Forgotten was the outside cold,", "The bitter wind unheeded blew,", "From ripening corn the pigeons flew,", "The partridge drummed i' the wood, the mink", "Went fishing down the river-brink.", "The woodchuck, like a hermit gray,", "Peered from the doorway of his cell;", "The muskrat plied the mason's trade,", "And tier by tier his mud-walls laid;", "And from the shagbark overhead", "The grizzled squirrel dropped his shell.", "", "Next, the dear aunt, whose smile of cheer", "And voice in dreams I see and hear, --", "The sweetest woman ever Fate", "Perverse denied a household mate,", "Who, lonely, homeless, not the less", "Found peace in love's unselfishness,", "And welcome wheresoe'er she went,", "A calm and gracious element,", "Whose presence seemed the sweet income", "And womanly atmosphere of home, --", "Called up her girlhood memories,", "The huskings and the apple-bees,", "The sleigh-rides and the summer sails,", "Weaving through all the poor details", "And homespuun warp of circumstance", "A golden woof-thread of romance.", "For well she kept her genial mood", "And simple faith of maidenhood;", "Before her still a cloud-land lay,", "The mirage loomed across her way;", "The morning dew, that dries so soon", "With others, glistened at her noon;", "Through years of toil and soil and care,", "From glossy tress to thin gray hair,", "All unprofaned she held apart", "The virgin fancies of the heart.", "Be shame to him of woman born", "Who hath for such but thought of scorn.", "", "There, too, our elder sister plied", "Her evening task the stand beside;", "A full, rich nature, free to trust,", "Truthful and almost sternly just,", "Impulsive, earnest, prompt to act,", "And make her generous thought a fact,", "Keeping with many a light disguise", "The secret of self-sacrifice.", "O heart sore-tried! thou hast the best", "That Heaven itself coud give thee, -- rest,", "Rest from all bitter thoughts and things!", "How many a poor one's blessing went", "With thee beneath the low green tent", "Whose curtain never outward swings!", "", "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 yougest 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 in 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 chnce can mar the pearl and gold", "Thy love hath left in trust with me?", "And while in late 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?", "", "Brisk wielder of the birch and rule,", "The master of the local school", "Held at the fire his favored place,", "Its warm glow lit a laughing face", "Fresh-hued and fair, where scarce appeared", "The uncertain prophecy of beard.", "He teased the mitten-blinded cat,", "Played cross-pins on my uncle's hat,", "Sang songs, and told us what befalls", "In classic Dartmouth's college halls.", "Born the wild Northern hills among,", "From whence his yeoman father wrung", "By patient toil subsistence scant,", "Not competence and yet not want,", "He early gained the power to pay", "His cheerful, self-reliant way;", "Could doff at ease his scholar's gown", "To peddle wares from town to town;", "Or through the long vacation's reach", "In lonely lowland districts teach,", "Where all the droll experience found", "At stranger hearths in boarding round,", "The moonlit skater's keen delight,", "The sleigh-drive through the frosty night,", "The rustic party, with its rough", "Accompaniment of blind-man's-buff,", "And whirling-plate, and forfeits paid,", "His winter task a pastime made.", "Happy the snow-locked homes wherein", "He tuned his merry violin,", "Or played the athlete in the barn,", "Or held the good dame's winding-yarn,", "Or mirth-provoking versions told", "Of classic legends rare and old,", "Wherein the scenes of Greece and Rome", "Had all the commonplace of home,", "And little seemed at best the odds", "'Twixt Yankee pedlers and old gods;", "Where Pindus-born Arachthus took", "The guise of any grist-mill brok,", "And dread Olympus at his will", "Became a huckleberry hill.", "", "A careless boy that night he seemed;", "But at his desk he had the look", "And air of one who wisely schemed,", "And hostage from the future took", "In trainëd thought and lore of book.", "Large-brained, clear-eyed, of such as he", "Shall Freedom's young apostles be,", "Who, following in War's bloody trail,", "Shall every lingering wrong assail;", "All chains from limb and spirit strike,", "Uplift the black and white alike;", "Scatter before their swift advance", "The darkness and the ignorance,", "The pride, the lust, the squalid sloth,", "Which nurtured Treason's monstrous growth,", "Made murder pastime, and the hell", "Of prison-torture possible;", "The cruel lie of caste refute,", "Old forms remould, and substitute", "For Slavery's lash the freeman's will,", "For blind routine, wise-handed skill;", "A school-house plant on every hill,", "Stretching in radiate nerve-lines thence", "The quick wires of intelligence;", "Till North and South together brought", "Shall own the same electric thought,", "In peace a common flag salute,", "And, side by side in labor's free", "And unresentful revalry,", "Harvest the fields wherein they fought.", "", "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 dwarded beside", "Her unbent will's majestic pride.", "She sat among us, at the test,", "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 of 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 thoroughfares,", "Up sea-set Malta's rocky stair,", "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 prophecies!", "", "Where'er her troubled path may be,", "The Lord's sweet pity with her go!", "The outward wayward life we see,", "The hidden springs we may not know.", "Nor is it given us to discern", "What threads the fatal sisters spun,", "Through what ancestral years has run", "The sorrow with the woman born,", "What forged her cruel chain of moods,", "What set her feet in solitudes,", "And held the love within her mute,", "What mingled madness in the blood", "A life-long discord and annoy,", "Water of tears with oil of joy,", "And hid within the folded bud", "Peversities of flower and fruit.", "It is not ours to separate", "The tangled skien of will and fate,", "To show what metes and bounds should stand", "Upon the soul's debatable land,", "And between choice and Providence", "Divide the circle of events;", "But He who knows our frame is just,", "Merciful and compassionate,", "And full of sweet assurances", "And hope for all the language is,", "That He remembereth we are dust!", "", "At last the great logs, crumbling low,", "Sent out a dull and duller glow,", "The bull's-eye watch that hung in view,", "Ticking its weary circuit through,", "Pointed with mutely warning sign", "Its black hand to the hour of nine.", "That sign the pleasant circle. broke:", "My uncle ceased his pipe to smoke,", "Knocked from its bowl the refuse gray", "And laid it tenderly away;", "Then roused himself to safely cover", "The dull red brands with ashes over,", "And while, with care, our mother laid", "The work aside, her steps she stayed", "One moment, seeking to express", "Her grateful sense of happiness", "For food and shelter, warmth and health,", "And love's contentment more than wealth,", "With simple wishes (not the weak,", "Vain prayers which no fulfilment seek,", "But such as warm the generous heart,", "O'er-prompt to do with Heaven its part)", "That none might lack, that bitter night,", "For bread and clothing, warmth and light.", "", "Within our beds awhile we heard", "The wind that round the gables roared,", "With now and then a ruder shock,", "Which made our very bedsteads rock.", "We heard the loosened clapboards tost,", "The board-nails snapping in the frost;", "And on us, through the unplastered wall,", "Felt the light sifted snow-flakes fall.", "But sleep stole on, as sleep will do", "When hearts are light and life is new;", "Faint and more faint the murmurs grew,", "Till in the summer-land of dreams", "They softened to the sound of streams,", "Low stir of leaves, and dip of oars,", "And lapsing waves on quiet shores.", "", "Next morn we wakened with the shout", "Of merry voices high and clear;", "And saw the teamsters drawing near", "To break the drifted highways out.", "Down the long hillside treading slow", "We saw the half-buried oxen go,", "Shaking the snow from heads uptost,", "Their straining nostrils white with frost.", "Before our door the stragglins train", "Drew up, an added team to gain.", "The elders threshed their hands a-cold,", "Passed, with the cider-mug, their jokes", "From lip to lip; the younger folks", "Down the loose snow-banks, wrestling rolled,", "Then toiled again the cavalcade", "O'er windy hill, through clogged ravine,", "And woodland paths that wound between", "Low drooping pine-boughs winter-weighed.", "From every barn a team afoot,", "At every house a new recruit,", "Where, drawn by Nature's subtlest law,", "Haply the watchful young men saw", "Sweet doorway pictures of the curls", "And curious eyes of merry girls,", "Lifting their hands in mock defence", "Against the snow-ball's compliments,", "And reading in each missive tost", "The charm with Eden never lost.", "", "We heard once more the sleigh-bells' sound;", "And, following where the teamsters led,", "The wise old Doctor went his round,", "Just pausing at our door to say,", "In the brief autocratic way", "Of one who, prompt at Duty's call", "Was free to urge her claim on all,", "That some poor neighbor sick abed", "At night our mother's aid would need.", "For, one in generous thought and deed", "What mattered in the sufferer's sight", "The Quaker matron's inward light,", "The Doctor's mail of Calvin's creed?", "All hearts confess the saints elect", "Who, twain in faith, in love agree,", "And melt not in an acid sect", "The Christian pearl of charity!", "", "So days went on: a week had passed", "Since the great world was heard from last.", "The Almanac we studied o'er,", "Read and reread our little store", "Of books and pamphlets, scarce a score;", "One harmless novel, mostly hid", "From younger eyes, a book forbid,", "And poetry (or good or bad,", "A single book was all we had),", "Where Ellwood's meek, drab-skirted Muse,", "A stranger to the heathen Nine,", "Sang, with a somewhat nasal whine,", "The wars of David and the Jews.", "At last the flourndering carrier bore", "The village paper to our door.", "Lo! broadening outward as we read,", "To warmer zones the horizon spread;", "In panoramic length unrolled", "We saw the marvels that it told.", "Before us passed the painted Creeks,", "And daft McGregor on his raids", "In Costa Rica's everglades.", "And up Taygetos winding slow", "Rode Ypsilanti's Mainote Greeks,", "A Turk's head at each saddle-bow!", "Welcome to us its week-old news,", "Its corner for the rustic Muse", "Its monthly gauge of snow and rain,", "Its record, mingling in a breath", "The wedding bell and dirge of death:", "Jest, anecdote, and love-lorn tale,", "The latest culprit sent to jail;", "Its hue and cry of stolen and lost,", "Its vendue sales and goods at cost,", "And traffic calling loud for gain.", "We felt the stir of hall and street,", "The pulse of life that round us beat;", "The chill embargo of the snow", "Was melted in the genial glow;", "Wide swung again our ice-locked door,", "And all the world was ours once more!", "", "Clasp, Angel of the backword look", "And folded wings of ashen gray", "And voice of echoes far away,", "The brazen covers of thy book;", "The weird palimpsest old and vast,", "Wherein thou hid'st the spectral past;", "Where, closely mingling, pale and glow", "The characters of joy and woe;", "The monographs of outlived years,", "Or smile-illumed or dim with tears,", "Green hills of life that slope to death,", "And haunts of home, whose vistaed trees", "Shade off to mournful cypresses,", "With the white amaranths underneath.", "Even while I look, I can but heed", "The restless sands' incessant fall,", "Importunate hours that hours succeed", "Each clamorous with its own sharp need,", "And duty keeping pace with all.", "Shut down and clasp with heavy lids;", "I hear again the voice that bids", "The dreamer leave his dream midway", "For larger hopes and graver fears:", "Life greatens in these later years,", "The century's aloe flowers to-day!", "", "Yet, haply, in some lull of life,", "Some Truce of God which breaks its strife,", "The wordling's eyes shall gather dew,", "Dreaming in throngful city ways", "Of winter joys his boyhood knew;", "And dear and early friends -- the few", "Who yet remain -- shall pause to view", "These Flemish pictures of old days;", "Sit with me by the homestead hearth", "And stretch the hands of memory forth", "To warm them at the wood-fire's blaze!", "And thanks untraced to lips unknown", "Shall greet me like the odors blown", "From unseen meadows newly mown,", "Or lilies floating in some pond,", "Wood-fringed, the wayside gaze beyond;", "The traveller owns the grateful sense", "Of sweetness near, he knows not whence,", "And, pausing takes with forehead bare", "The benediction of the air." ], "linecount": "759" }, { "title": "Burning Drift-Wood", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "Before my drift-wood fire I sit,", "And see, with every waif I burn,", "Old dreams and fancies coloring it,", "And folly's unlaid ghosts return.", "", "O ships of mine, whose swift keels cleft", "The enchanted sea on which they sailed,", "Are these poor fragments only left", "Of vain desires and hopes that failed?", "", "Did I not watch from them the light", "Of sunset on my towers in Spain,", "And see, far off, uploom in sight", "The Fortunate Isles I might not gain?", "", "Did sudden lift of fog reveal", "Arcadia's vales of song and spring,", "And did I pass, with grazing keel,", "The rocks whereon the sirens sing?", "", "Have I not drifted hard upon", "The unmapped regions lost to man,", "The cloud-pitched tents of Prester John,", "The palace domes of Kubla Khan?", "", "Did land winds blow from jasmine flowers,", "Where Youth the ageless Fountain fills?", "Did Love make sign from rose blown bowers,", "And gold from Eldorado's hills?", "", "Alas! the gallant ships, that sailed", "On blind Adventure's errand sent,", "Howe'er they laid their courses, failed", "To reach the haven of Content.", "", "And of my ventures, those alone", "Which Love had freighted, safely sped,", "Seeking a good beyond my own,", "By clear-eyed Duty piloted.", "", "O mariners, hoping still to meet", "The luck Arabian voyagers met,", "And find in Bagdad's moonlit street,", "Haroun al Raschid walking yet,", "", "Take with you, on your Sea of Dreams,", "The fair, fond fancies dear to youth.", "I turn from all that only seems,", "And seek the sober grounds of truth.", "", "What matter that it is not May,", "That birds have flown, and trees are bare,", "That darker grows the shortening day,", "And colder blows the wintry air!", "", "The wrecks of passion and desire,", "The castles I no more rebuild,", "May fitly feed my drift-wood fire,", "And warm the hands that age has chilled.", "", "Whatever perished with my ships,", "I only know the best remains;", "A song of praise is on my lips", "For losses which are now my gains.", "", "Heap high my hearth! No worth is lost;", "No wisdom with the folly dies.", "Burn on, poor shreds, your holocaust", "Shall be my evening sacrifice!", "", "Far more than all I dared to dream,", "Unsought before my door I see;", "On wings of fire and steeds of steam", "The world's great wonders come to me,", "", "And holier signs, unmarked before,", "Of Love to seek and Power to save, --", "The righting of the wronged and poor,", "The man evolving from the slave;", "", "And life, no longer chance or fate,", "Safe in the gracious Fatherhood.", "I fold o'er-wearied hands and wait,", "In full assurance of the good.", "", "And well the waiting time must be,", "Though brief or long its granted days,", "If Faith and Hope and Charity", "Sit by my evening hearth-fire's blaze.", "", "And with them, friends whom Heaven has spared,", "Whose love my heart has comforted,", "And, sharing all my joys, has shared", "My tender memories of the dead, --", "", "Dear souls who left us lonely here,", "Bound on their last, long voyage, to whom", "We, day by day, are drawing near,", "Where every bark has sailing room.", "", "I know the solemn monotone", "Of waters calling unto me;", "I know from whence the airs have blown", "That whisper of the Eternal Sea.", "", "As low my fires of drift-wood burn,", "I hear that sea's deep sounds increase,", "And, fair in sunset light, discern", "Its mirage-lifted Isles of Peace." ], "linecount": "88" }, { "title": "The Worship of Nature", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "The harp at Nature's advent strung", "Has never ceased to play;", "The song the stars of morning sung", "Has never died away.", "", "And prayer is made, and praise is given,", "By all things near and far;", "The ocean looketh up to heaven,", "And mirrors every star.", "", "Its waves are kneeling on the strand,", "As kneels the human knee,", "Their white locks bowing to the sand,", "The priesthood of the sea!", "", "They pour their glittering treasures forth,", "Their gifts of pearl they bring,", "And all the listening hills of earth", "Take up the song they sing.", "", "The green earth sends its incense up", "From many a mountain shrine;", "From folded leaf and dewy cup", "She pours her sacred wine.", "", "The mists above the morning rills", "Rise white as wings of prayer;", "The altar-curtains of the hills", "Are sunset's purple air.", "", "The winds with hymns of praise are loud,", "Or low with sobs of pain, --", "The thunder-organ of the cloud,", "The dropping tears of rain.", "", "With drooping head and branches crossed", "The twilight forest grieves,", "Or speaks with tongues of Pentecost", "From all its sunlit leaves.", "", "The blue sky is the temple's arch,", "Its transept earth and air,", "The music of its starry march", "The chorus of a prayer.", "", "So Nature keeps the reverent frame", "With which her years began,", "And all her signs and voices shame", "The prayerless heart of man." ], "linecount": "40" }, { "title": "The Barefoot Boy", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "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!" ], "linecount": "102" } ]