Pennsylvania Pilgrim, and other poems: Part 6 From Volume I of The Works of John Greenleaf WhittierWhittier, John Greenleaf
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Pennsylvania Pilgrim, and other poems: Part 6 From Volume I of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
Whittier, John Greenleaf
American poetry -- 19th century
Sank, with the brake he grasped just where he stood
To do the utmost that a brave man could,
And die, if needful, as a true man should.
Men stooped above him; women dropped their tears
On that poor wreck beyond all hopes or fears,
Lost in the strength and glory of his years.
What heard they? Lo! the ghastly lips of pain,
Dead to all thought save duty's, moved again
"Put out the signals for the other train!"
No nobler utterance since the world began
From lips of saint or martyr ever ran,
Electric, through the sympathies of man.
Ah me! how poor and noteless seem to this
The sick-bed dramas of self-consciousness,
Our sensual fears of pain and hopes of bliss!
Oh, grand, supreme endeavor! Not in vain
That last brave act of failing tongue and brain
Freighted with life the downward rushing train,
Following the wrecked one, as wave follows wave,
Obeyed the warning which the dead lips gave.
Others he saved, himself he could not save.
Nay, the lost life was saved. He is not dead
Who in his record still the earth shall tread
With God's clear aureole shining round his head.
We bow as in the dust, with all our pride
Of virtue dwarfed the noble deed beside.
God give us grace to live as Bradley died!
1873.
THE WITCH OF WENHAM.
The house is still standing in Danvers, Mass., where, it is said, a
suspected witch was confined overnight in the attic, which was bolted
fast. In the morning when the constable came to take her to Salem for
trial she was missing, although the door was still bolted. Her escape
was doubtless aided by her friends, but at the time it was attributed
to Satanic interference.
I.
ALONG Crane River's sunny slopes
Blew warm the winds of May,
And over Naumkeag's ancient oaks
The green outgrew the gray.
The grass was green on Rial-side,
The early birds at will
Waked up the violet in its dell,
The wind-flower on its hill.
"Where go you, in your Sunday coat,
Son Andrew, tell me, pray."
For striped perch in Wenham Lake
I go to fish to-day."
"Unharmed of thee in Wenham Lake
The mottled perch shall be
A blue-eyed witch sits on the bank
And weaves her net for thee.
"She weaves her golden hair; she sings
Her spell-song low and faint;
The wickedest witch in Salem jail
Is to that girl a saint."
"Nay, mother, hold thy cruel tongue;
God knows," the young man cried,
"He never made a whiter soul
Than hers by Wenham side.
"She tends her mother sick and blind,
And every want supplies;
To her above the blessed Book
She lends her soft blue eyes.
"Her voice is glad with holy songs,
Her lips are sweet with prayer;
Go where you will, in ten miles round
Is none more good and fair."
"Son Andrew, for the love of God
And of thy mother, stay!"
She clasped her hands, she wept aloud,
But Andrew rode away.
"O reverend sir, my Andrew's soul
The Wenham witch has caught;
She holds him with the curled gold
Whereof her snare is wrought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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