John Greenleaf Whittier

"The Pagan's myths through marble lips are spoken,     And ghosts of old Beliefs still flit and moan     Round fane and altar overthrown and brok"

"Make, for he loved thee well, our Merrimac,     From wave and shore a low and long lament     For him, whose last look sought thee, as he went"

"The shadows grow and deepen round me,     I feel the deffall in the air;     The muezzin of the darkening thicket,     I hear the night-thrush"

"Bear him, comrades, to his grave;     Never over one more brave     Shall the prairie grasses weep,     In the ages yet to come,     When the"

"Some die too late and some too soon,     At early morning, heat of noon,     Or the chill evening twilight. Thou,     Whom the rich heavens did"

"The Eagle, stooping from yon snow-blown peaks,     For the wild hunter and the Bison seeks,     In the changed world below; and finds alone"

"Beneath the low-hung night cloud     That raked her splintering mast     The good ship settled slowly,     The cruel leak gained fast.     Ov"

"God's love and peace be with thee, where     Soe'er this soft autumnal air     Lifts the dark tresses of thy hair.     Whether through city ca"

"What though around thee blazes     No fiery rallying sign?     From all thy own high places,     Give heaven the light of thine!     What thou"

"Around Sebago's lonely lake     There lingers not a breeze to break     The mirror which its waters make.     The solemn pines along its shore"

"I would not sin, in this half-playful strain,     Too light perhaps for serious years, though born     Of the enforced leisure of slow pain,"

"All night above their rocky bed     They saw the stars march slow;     The wild Sierra overhead,     The desert's death below.     The Indian"

"A tale for Roman guides to tell     To careless, sight-worn travellers still,     Who pause beside the narrow cell     Of Gregory on the Caelia"

""Who gives and hides the giving hand,     Nor counts on favor, fame, or praise,     Shall find his smallest gift outweighs     The burden of th"

"Out from Jerusalem     The king rode with his great     War chiefs and lords of state,     And Sheba's queen with them;     Comely, but black"

"For ages on our river borders,     These tassels in their tawny bloom,     And willowy studs of downy silver,     Have prophesied of Spring to"

"The years are but half a score,     And the war-whoop sounds no more     With the blast of bugles, where     Straight into a slaughter pen,"

"The wave is breaking on the shore,     The echo fading from the chime;     Again the shadow moveth o'er     The dial-plate of time!     O seer"

"O Ary Scheffer! when beneath thine eye,     Touched with the light that cometh from above,     Grew the sweet picture of the dear Lord's love,"

"To a young physician, with Dore's picture of Christ healing the sick.     So stood of old the holy Christ     Amidst the suffering throng;"

"The evil days have come, the poor     Are made a prey;     Bar up the hospitable door,     Put out the fire-lights, point no more     The wand"

"Thou dwellest not, O Lord of all     In temples which thy children raise;     Our work to thine is mean and small,     And brief to thy eternal"

"For the fairest maid in Hampton     They needed not to search,     Who saw young Anna favor     Come walking into church,     Or bringing fro"

"O state prayer-founded! never hung     Such choice upon a people's tongue,     Such power to bless or ban,     As that which makes thy whisper"

"He had bowed down to drunkenness,     An abject worshipper:     The pride of manhood's pulse had grown     Too faint and cold to stir;     And"

"A beautiful and happy girl,     With step as light as summer air,     Eyes glad with smiles, and brow of pearl,     Shadowed by many a careless"

"Stand still, my soul, in the silent dark     I would question thee,     Alone in the shadow drear and stark     With God and me!     What, my"

"On the wide lawn the snow lay deep,     Ridged oer with many a drifted heap;     The wind that through the pine-trees sung     The naked elm-b"

"O thou, whose presence went before     Our fathers in their weary way,     As with Thy chosen moved of yore     The fire by night, the cloud by"

""From these wild rocks I look to-day     O'er leagues of dancing waves, and see     The far, low coast-line stretch away     To where our river"

"This day, two hundred years ago,     The wild grape by the river's side,     And tasteless groundnut trailing low,     The table of the woods s"

"Where ceaseless Spring her garland twines,     As sweetly shall the loved one rest,     As if beneath the whispering pines     And maple shadow"

"A Harvest Idyl. Proem.     I call the old time back: I bring my lay     in tender memory of the summer day     When, where our native river"

"The years are many since his hand     Was laid upon my head,     Too weak and young to understand     The serious words he said.     Yet ofte"

"Across the Stony Mountains, o'er the desert's drouth and sand,     The circles of our empire touch the western ocean's strand;     From slumbero"

"Yorktown     From Yorktown's ruins, ranked and still,     Two lines stretch far o'er vale and hill:     Who curbs his steed at head of one?"

"You flung your taunt across the wave     We bore it as became us,     Well knowing that the fettered slave     Left friendly lips no option sav"

"Take our hands, James Russell Lowell,     Our hearts are all thy own;     To-day we bid thee welcome     Not for ourselves alone.     In the"

"Behind us at our evening meal     The gray bird ate his fill,     Swung downward by a single claw,     And wiped his hooked bill.     He shoo"

"In that black forest, where, when day is done,     With a snakes stillness glides the Amazon     Darkly from sunset to the rising sun,     A"

"The threads our hands in blindness spin     No self-determined plan weaves in;     The shuttle of the unseen powers     Works out a pattern not"

"Its windows flashing to the sky,     Beneath a thousand roofs of brown,     Far down the vale, my friend and I     Beheld the old and quiet tow"

"Above, below, in sky and sod,     In leaf and spar, in star and man,     Well might the wise Athenian scan     The geometric signs of God,"

"Beside a stricken field I stood;     On the torn turf, on grass and wood,     Hung heavily the dew of blood.     Still in their fresh mounds l"

"Out and in the river is winding     The links of its long, red chain,     Through belts of dusky pine-land     And gusty leagues of plain."

"How bland and sweet the greeting of this breeze     To him who flies     From crowded street and red wall's weary gleam,     Till far behind hi"

"All grim and soiled and brown with tan,     I saw a Strong One, in his wrath,     Smiting the godless shrines of man     Along his path.     T"

"I heard the train's shrill whistle call,     I saw an earnest look beseech,     And rather by that look than speech     My neighbor told me all"

"Dream not, O Soul, that easy is the task     Thus set before thee. If it proves at length,     As well it may, beyond thy natural strength,"

"Piero Luca, known of all the town     As the gray porter by the Pitti wall     Where the noon shadows of the gardens fall,     Sick and in dolo"

"I have not felt, o'er seas of sand,     The rocking of the desert bark;     Nor laved at Hebron's fount my hand,     By Hebron's palm-trees coo"

"Still sits the school-house by the road,     A ragged beggar sleeping;     Around it still the sumachs grow,     And blackberry-vines are creep"

"I know not, Time and Space so intervene,     Whether, still waiting with a trust serene,     Thou bearest up thy fourscore years and ten,     O"

"It was late in mild October, and the long autumnal rain     Had left the summer harvest-fields all green with grass again;     The first sharp f"

"With clearer light, Cross of the South, shine forth     In blue Brazilian skies;     And thou, O river, cleaving half the earth     From sunset"

"I.     The suns of eighteen centuries have shone     Since the Redeemer walked with man, and made     The fisher's boat, the cavern's floor of sto"

"It was the pleasant harvest time,     When cellar-bins are closely stowed,     And garrets bend beneath their load,     And the old swallow-ha"

"They tell me, Lucy, thou art dead,     That all of thee we loved and cherished     Has with thy summer roses perished;     And left, as its you"

"One Sabbath day my friend and I     After the meeting, quietly     Passed from the crowded village lanes,     White with dry dust for lack of r"

"The firmament breaks up. In black eclipse     Light after light goes out. One evil star,     Luridly glaring through the smoke of war,     As i"