John Greenleaf Whittier

"We saw the slow tides go and come,     The curving surf-lines lightly drawn,     The gray rocks touched with tender bloom     Beneath the fresh"

"I did but dream. I never knew     What charms our sternest season wore.     Was never yet the sky so blue,     Was never earth so white before."

"I would the gift I offer here     Might graces from thy favor take,     And, seen through Friendship's atmosphere,     On softened lines and co"

"The tent-lights glimmer on the land,     The ship-lights on the sea;     The night-wind smooths with drifting sand     Our track on lone Tybee."

"Smoothing soft the nestling head     Of a maiden fancy-led,     Thus a grave-eyed woman said:     "Richest gifts are those we make,     Deare"

"Not on Penobscot's wooded bank the spires     Of the sought City rose, nor yet beside     The winding Charles, nor where the daily tide     Of"

"ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,     When first I saw our banner wave     Above the nations council-hall,     I heard beneath i"

"Right in the track where Sherman     Ploughed his red furrow,     Out of the narrow cabin,     Up from the cellar's burrow,     Gathered the l"

"A bending staff I would not break,     A feeble faith I would not shake,     Nor even rashly pluck away     The error which some truth may stay"

""All hail!" the bells of Christmas rang,     "All hail!" the monks at Christmas sang,     The merry monks who kept with cheer     The gladdest"

"Years since (but names to me before),     Two sisters sought at eve my door;     Two song-birds wandering from their nest,     A gray old farm-"

"From the well-springs of Hudson, the sea-cliffs of Maine,     Grave men, sober matrons, you gather again;     And, with hearts warmer grown as y"

"SUNG AT CHRISTMAS BY THE SCHOLARS OF ST. HELENAS ISLAND, S. C.     O none in all the world before     Were ever glad as we!     Were free on Ca"

"The Rabbi Nathan two-score years and ten     Walked blameless through the evil world, and then,     Just as the almond blossomed in his hair,"

""They hear Thee not, O God! nor see;     Beneath Thy rod they mock at Thee;     The princes of our ancient line     Lie drunken with Assyrian w"

"An autograph.     Graceful in name and in thyself, our river     None fairer saw in John Ward's pilgrim flock,     Proof that upon their cent"

"Is this the land our fathers loved,     The freedom which they toiled to win?     Is this the soil whereon they moved?     Are these the graves"

"The land was pale with famine     And racked with fever-pain;     The frozen fiords were fishless,     The earth withheld her grain.     Men"

"A track of moonlight on a quiet lake,     Whose small waves on a silver-sanded shore     Whisper of peace, and with the low winds make     Such"

"Token of friendship true and tried,     From one whose fiery heart of youth     With mine has beaten, side by side,     For Liberty and Truth;"

"O lonely bay of Trinity,     O dreary shores, give ear!     Lean down unto the white-lipped sea     The voice of God to hear!     From world"

"With wisdom far beyond her years,     And graver than her wondering peers,     So strong, so mild, combining still     The tender heart and que"

"Sweetest of all childlike dreams     In the simple Indian lore     Still to me the legend seems     Of the shapes who flit before.     Flitti"

"When on my day of life the night is falling,     And, in the winds from unsunned spaces blown,     I hear far voices out of darkness calling"

"To the God of all sure mercies let my blessing rise today,     From the scoffer and the cruel He hath plucked the spoil away;     Yes, he who co"

"The tree of Faith its bare, dry boughs must shed     That nearer heaven the living ones may climb;     The false must fail, though from our shor"

"I.     Oer the bare woods, whose outstretched hands     Plead with the leaden heavens in vain,     I see, beyond the valley lands,     The seas"

"Still in thy streets, O Paris! doth the stain     Of blood defy the cleansing autumn rain;     Still breaks the smoke Messina's ruins through,"

"Maud Muller on a summers day,     Raked the meadow sweet with hay.     Beneath her torn hat glowed the wealth     Of simple beauty and rustic"

"Olor Iscanus queries: Why should we     Vex at the lands ridiculous miserie?     So on his Usk banks, in the blood-red dawn     Of Englands"

"Kloster Kedar, Ephrata, Pennsylvania (1738)     Sister Maria Christina sings:     Wake, sisters, wake! the day-star shines;     Above Ephrat"

"In the valuable and carefully prepared History of Marblehead, published in 1879 by Samuel Roads, Jr., it is stated that the crew of Captain Ireson"

"Is it the palm, the cocoa-palm,     On the Indian Sea, by the isles of balm?     Or is it a ship in the breezeless calm?     A ship whose keel"

"'Tis over, Moses! All is lost!     I hear the bells a-ringing;     Of Pharaoh and his Red Sea host     I hear the Free-Wills singing.     We'r"

"The fagots blazed, the caldron's smoke     Up through the green wood curled;     "Bring honey from the hollow oak,     Bring milky sap," the br"

"Bland as the morning breath of June     The southwest breezes play;     And, through its haze, the winter noon     Seems warm as summers day."

"I.     Not without envy Wealth at times must look     On their brown strength who wield the reaping-hook."     And scythe, or at the forge-fire sh"

"We may not climb the heavenly steeps     To bring the Lord Christ down;     In vain we search the lowest deeps     For Him who fills Heaven's t"

"Voice of the Holy Spirit, making known     Man to himself, a witness swift and sure,     Warning, approving, true and wise and pure,     Counse"

"I wandered lonely where the pine-trees made     Against the bitter East their barricade,     And, guided by its sweet     Perfume, I found, wit"

""Why urge the long, unequal fight,     Since Truth has fallen in the street,     Or lift anew the trampled light,     Quenched by the heedless"

"My heart was heavy, for its trust had been     Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;     So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men,"

"A railway conductor who lost his life in an accident on a Connecticut railway, May 9, 1873.     Conductor Bradley, (always may his name     Be"

"The age is dull and mean. Men creep,     Not walk; with blood too pale and tame     To pay the debt they owe to shame;     Buy cheap, sell dear"

"The birds against the April wind     Flew northward, singing as they flew;     They sang, "The land we leave behind     Has swords for corn-bla"

"We had been wandering for many days     Through the rough northern country. We had seen     The sunset, with its bars of purple cloud,     Like"

"We wait beneath the furnace-blast     The pangs of transformation;     Not painlessly doth God recast     And mould anew the nation.     Hot b"

"Still, as of old, in Beavor's Vale,     O man of God! our hope and faith     The Elements and Stars assail,     And the awed spirit holds its b"

"Men! if manhood still ye claim,     If the Northern pulse can thrill,     Roused by wrong or stung by shame,     Freely, strongly still;     L"

"The clouds, which rise with thunder, slake     Our thirsty souls with rain;     The blow most dreaded falls to break     From off our limbs a c"

"Addressed to Francis Greenleaf Allison of Burlington, New Jersey.     You scarcely need my tardy thanks,     Who, self-rewarded, nurse and ten"

"I.     The mercy, O Eternal One!     By man unmeasured yet,     In joy or grief, in shade or sun,     I never will forget.     I give the whole,"

"Secretary of the Boston young men's anti-slavery society.     Gone before us, O our brother,     To the spirit-land!     Vainly look we for a"

""To the winds give our banner!     Bear homeward again!"     Cried the Lord of Acadia,     Cried Charles of Estienne;     From the prow of his"

"The old Squire said, as he stood by his gate,     And his neighbor, the Deacon, went by,     "In spite of my bank stock and real estate,     Yo"

"In calm and cool and silence, once again     I find my old accustomed place among     My brethren, where, perchance, no human tongue     Shall"

"Beside that milestone where the level sun,     Nigh unto setting, sheds his last, low rays     On word and work irrevocably done,     Lifes bl"

"The moon has set: while yet the dawn     Breaks cold and gray,     Between the midnight and the morn     Bear off your prey!     On, swift and"

"Up the streets of Aberdeen,     By the kirk and college green,     Rode the Laird of Ury;     Close behind him, close beside,     Foul of mout"

"'Tis morning over Norridgewock,     On tree and wigwam, wave and rock.     Bathed in the autumnal sunshine, stirred     At intervals by breeze"