John Greenleaf Whittier

"PRELUDE     Along the roadside, like the flowers of gold     That tawny Incas for their gardens wrought,     Heavy with sunshine droops the golden"

"Blessings on thee, little man,     Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!     With thy turned-up pantaloons,     And thy merry whistled tunes;     W"

"As Adam did in Paradise,     To-day the primal right we claim     Fair mirror of the woods and skies,     We give to thee a name.     Lake of"

"The river hemmed with leaning trees     Wound through its meadows green;     A low, blue line of mountains showed     The open pines between."

"He comes, he comes, the Frost Spirit comes, you may trace his footsteps now,     On the naked woods and the blasted fields and the brown hills w"

"Nauhaught, the Indian deacon, who of old     Dwelt, poor but blameless, where his narrowing Cape     Stretches its shrunk arm out to all the win"

"The flags of war like storm-birds fly,     The charging trumpets blow;     Yet rolls no thunder in the sky,     No earthquake strives below."

"The lowliest born of all the land,     He wrung from Fate's reluctant hand     The gifts which happier boyhood claims;     And, tasting on a th"

"Far away in the twilight time     Of every people, in every clime,     Dragons and griffins and monsters dire,     Born of water, and air, and"

"The subtle power in perfume found     Nor priest nor sibyl vainly learned;     On Grecian shrine or Aztec mound     No censer idly burned."

"Andrew Rykmans dead and gone;     You can see his leaning slate     In the graveyard, and thereon     Read his name and date.     Trust is"

"Beneath the moonlight and the snow     Lies dead my latest year;     The winter winds are wailing low     Its dirges in my ear.     I grieve"

"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 ret"

"So spake Esaias: so, in words of flame,     Tekoa's prophet-herdsman smote with blame     The traffickers in men, and put to shame,     All ear"

"No Berserk thirst of blood had they,     No battle-joy was theirs, who set     Against the alien bayonet     Their homespun breasts in that old"

"In the outskirts of the village     On the river's winding shores     Stand the Occidental plane-trees,     Stand the ancient sycamores."

"We have opened the door,     Once, twice, thrice!     We have swept the floor,     We have boiled the rice.     Come hither, come hither!"

""A! fredome is a nobill thing!     Fredome mayse man to haif liking.     Fredome all solace to man giffis;     He levys at ese that frely levys"

"A moony breadth of virgin face,     By thought unviolated;     A patient mouth, to take from scorn     The hook with bank-notes baited!     It"

""Jove means to settle     Astraea in her seat again,     And let down his golden chain     An age of better metal."     - Ben Johnson 1615"

"Not always as the whirlwind's rush     On Horeb's mount of fear,     Not always as the burning bush     To Midian's shepherd seer,     Nor as"

"One day, along the electric wire     His manly word for Freedom sped;     We came next morn: that tongue of fire     Said only, "He who spake i"

"Poet and friend of poets, if thy glass     Detects no flower in winter's tuft of grass,     Let this slight token of the debt I owe     Outlive"

"On her return from Europe.     How smiled the land of France     Under thy blue eye's glance,     Light-hearted rover     Old walls of chate"

"The pleasant isle of Rugen looks the Baltic water o'er,     To the silver-sanded beaches of the Pomeranian shore;     And in the town of Rambin"

"Night on the city of the Moor!     On mosque and tomb, and white-walled shore,     On sea-waves, to whose ceaseless knock     The narrow harbor"

"Our vales are sweet with fern and rose,     Our hills are maple-crowned;     But not from them our fathers chose     The village burying-ground"

"Spare me, dread angel of reproof,     And let the sunshine weave to-day     Its gold-threads in the warp and woof     Of life so poor and gray."

"Gone hath the Spring, with all its flowers,     And gone the Summers pomp and show,     And Autumn, in his leafless bowers,     Is waiting for"

"Thank God for the token! one lip is still free,     One spirit untrammelled, unbending one knee!     Like the oak of the mountain, deep-rooted a"

"Against the wooded hills it stands,     Ghost of a dead home, staring through     Its broken lights on wasted lands     Where old-time harvests"

"Under the great hill sloping bare     To cove and meadow and Common lot,     In his council chamber and oaken chair,     Sat the worshipful Gov"

""O Lady fair, these silks of mine are beautiful and rare,     The richest web of the Indian loom, which beauty's queen might wear;     And my pe"

"Oh, dwarfed and wronged, and stained with ill,     Behold! thou art a woman still!     And, by that sacred name and dear,     I bid thy better"

"A pious magistrate! sound his praise throughout     The wondering churches. Who shall henceforth doubt     That the long-wished millennium drawe"

"The Khan came from Bokhara town     To Hamza, santon of renown.     "My head is sick, my hands are weak;     Thy help, O holy man, I seek.""

"The cannon's brazen lips are cold;     No red shell blazes down the air;     And street and tower, and temple old,     Are silent as despair."

"Voice of a people suffering long,     The pathos of their mournful song,     The sorrow of their night of wrong!     Their cry like that which"

""O Mother Earth! upon thy lap     Thy weary ones receiving,     And o'er them, silent as a dream,     Thy grassy mantle weaving,     Fold soft"

"As a guest who may not stay     Long and sad farewells to say     Glides with smiling face away,     Of the sweetness and the zest     Of thy"

"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 e"

"Have I not voyaged, friend beloved, with thee     On the great waters of the unsounded sea,     Momently listening with suspended oar     For t"

"Rivermouth Rocks are fair to see,     By dawn or sunset shone across,     When the ebb of the sea has left them free,     To dry their fringes"

"Thank God for rest, where none molest,     And none can make afraid;     For Peace that sits as Plenty's guest     Beneath the homestead shade!"

"The roll of drums and the bugle's wailing     Vex the air of our vales-no more;     The spear is beaten to hooks of pruning,     The share is t"

"Where Time the measure of his hours     By changeful bud and blossom keeps,     And, like a young bride crowned with flowers,     Fair Shiraz i"

"Now, joy and thanks forevermore!     The dreary night has wellnigh passed,     The slumbers of the North are o'er,     The Giant stands erect a"

"The Benedictine Echard     Sat by the wayside well,     Where Marsberg sees the bridal     Of the Sarre and the Moselle.     Fair with its sl"

"Our fellow-countrymen in chains!     Slaves, in a land of light and law!     Slaves, crouching on the very plains     Where rolled the storm of"

"The circle is broken, one seat is forsaken,     One bud from the tree of our friendship is shaken;     One heart from among us no longer shall t"

"Type of two mighty continents! combining     The strength of Europe with the warmth and glow     Of Asian song and prophecy, the shining     Of"

"An incident of the Sepoy mutiny.     Pipes of the misty moorlands,     Voice of the glens and hills;     The droning of the torrents,     Th"

"'Neath skies that winter never knew     The air was full of light and balm,     And warm and soft the Gulf wind blew     Through orange bloom a"

""Who stands on that cliff, like a figure of stone,     Unmoving and tall in the light of the sky,     Where the spray of the cataract sparkles o"

"Longfellow.     With a glory of winter sunshine     Over his locks of gray,     In the old historic mansion     He sat on his last birthday;"

"I. Franconia from the Pemigewasset     Once more, O Mountains of the North, unveil     Your brows, and lay your cloudy mantles by     And once"

"The time of gifts has come again,     And, on my northern window-pane,     Outlined against the days brief light,     A Christmas token hangs"

"I ask not now for gold to gild     With mocking shine a weary frame;     The yearning of the mind is stilled,     I ask not now for Fame."

"From the heart of Waumbek Methna, from the lake that never fails,     Falls the Saco in the green lap of Conway's intervales;     There, in wild"

"As they who, tossing midst the storm at night,     While turning shoreward, where a beacon shone,     Meet the walled blackness of the heaven al"