The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier - Taschenbuch

THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS 0F JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER - 1879 - IN these bolumes, for the first time, a complete collection of my poetical writings has been made. While it is satisfactory to know that these scattered children of my brain have found a home, I cannot but regret that I have been unable, by reason of illness, to give that attention to their revision and arrangement, which respect for the opinions of others and my own afterthought and experience demand. That there are pieces in this collection which I would willingly let die, I am free to confess. But it is now too late to disown them, and I must submit to the inevitable penalty of poetical as well as other sins. There are others, intimately connected with the authors life and times, which owe their tenacity of vitality to the circumstances under which they were written, and the events by which they were suggested. The long poem of Mogg Megone was, in a great measure, composed in early life and it is scarcely necessary to say that its subject is not such as the writer would have chosen at any subsequent qenod. P R O E M . I LOVE the old melodious la s Which softly melt the ages througk, The songs of Speusers golden days, Arcadian Sidneys silvery phrase, Sprinkling our noon of time with Creshest 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 oftlre sky. The rigor of a frozen clime, The harshness of an untau ht car, The jarring words ofone whose rhyme Beatoften-Labors hurried time, Or Dutys rugged march through storm and strife, are here. Of mvstic beantv. dreamv erace. Norounded art the 1a k suppli e . Unskilled the subtle l nestotr ace, Or softer shades of Natures face, I view her common forms with unanointed eyes. Nor mine the seer-like power to show The secreis of the heart and mind To drop the plummet-line below Our common wprld ofjo and woe, A more intense despalr or bngbter 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 brothers pain and sorrow were my own. 0 Freedom I if to me belong Nor mighty Miltons gift drvine, Nor Marvells wit and graceful song, Still with a love as deep and strong As theirs, I lay, like them, my best sfts on tby shrine - C O N T E N T S . MOGG MEGONE Part1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Part11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Part III . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 I . The Merrimack . . . . . . . . . . 25 11 . The Bashaba . . . . . . . . . . 26 rrr . The Daughter . . . . . . . . . 28 rv . The Wedding . . . . . . . . . . 29 v . The New Home . . . . . . . . 30 vr . At Pennacook . . . . . . . . . 31 vrr . The Departure . . . . . . . . . . 3 33 1 v111 . Song of Indian Women . . . . . . . . 34 LEGENDAR . Y The Mcmmack . . . . . . . . . . 37 The Norsemen . . . . . . . . . . 38 Cassandra outhwkk . . . . . . . . 39 Funeral Tree of the o k o k s . . . . . . . . . 43 St . John . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Pentucket . . . . . . . . . . . 46 The Fam l sts m n . . . . . . . . . . 47 The Fountain . . . . . . . . . . . 48 The Exiles . . . . . . 49 he e w w ife ind he old . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Toussaint LOuverture . . . . . . . . . 57 The Slave-Ships . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Stanzas . Our Countrymen in Chains . . 61 The Yankee Glrl . . . . . . . . .. . 6a T0W. L. G. . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Song of the Free . . . . . . . . . . 64 The Hunters of Men . . . . . . . . 64 Clerical Oppressors . . . . . . . . . . . S 2 The Christian Slave . . . . . . . . . Stanzas for the Times . . . . . . . . . . Q CONTENTS . Lines. written on reading the Message of Governor Ritner. Thvean Piaa. s t 1 o 8 r 3 a 6 l Le . tter . . . ...