Personal Poems, Complete: Volume IV of The Works of John Greenleaf WhittierWhittier, John Greenleaf
General
Personal Poems, Complete: Volume IV of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
Whittier, John Greenleaf
American poetry -- 19th century
THE TENT ON THE BEACH.
PRELUDE
THE TENT ON THE BEACH
THE WRECK OF RIVERMOUTH
THE GRAVE BY THE LAKE
THE BROTHER OF MERCY
THE CHANGELING
THE MAIDS OF ATTITASH
KALLUNDBORG CHURCH
THE CABLE HYMN
THE DEAD SHIP OF HARPSWELL
THE PALATINE
ABRAHAM DAVENPORT
THE WORSHIP OF NATURE
AT SUNDOWN.
TO E. C. S.
THE CHRISTMAS OF 1888.
THE Vow OF WASHINGTON
THE CAPTAIN'S WELL
AN OUTDOOR RECEPTION
R. S. S., AT DEER ISLAND ON THE MERRIMAC
BURNING DRIFT-WOOD.
O. W. HOLMES ON HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
HAVERHILL. 1640-1890
To G. G.
PRESTON POWERS, INSCRIPTION FOR BASS-RELIEF
LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY, INSCRIPTION ON TABLET
MILTON, ON MEMORIAL WINDOW
THE BIRTHDAY WREATH
THE WIND OF MARCH
BETWEEN THE GATES
THE LAST EVE OF SUMMER
TO OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, 8TH Mo. 29TH, 1892
NOTE. The portrait prefacing this volume is from an engraving on steel
by J. A. J. WILCOX in 1888, after a photograph taken by Miss ISA E. GRAY
in July, 1885.
A LAMENT
"The parted spirit,
Knoweth it not our sorrow? Answereth not
Its blessing to our tears?"
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 thrill
With joy in our gladness, or grief in our ill.
Weep! lonely and lowly are slumbering now
The light of her glances, the pride of her brow;
Weep! sadly and long shall we listen in vain
To hear the soft tones of her welcome again.
Give our tears to the dead! For humanity's claim
From its silence and darkness is ever the same;
The hope of that world whose existence is bliss
May not stifle the tears of the mourners of this.
For, oh! if one glance the freed spirit can throw
On the scene of its troubled probation below,
Than the pride of the marble, the pomp of the dead,
To that glance will be dearer the tears which we shed.
Oh, who can forget the mild light of her smile,
Over lips moved with music and feeling the while,
The eye's deep enchantment, dark, dream-like, and clear,
In the glow of its gladness, the shade of its tear.
And the charm of her features, while over the whole
Played the hues of the heart and the sunshine of soul;
And the tones of her voice, like the music which seems
Murmured low in our ears by the Angel of dreams!
But holier and dearer our memories hold
Those treasures of feeling, more precious than gold,
The love and the kindness and pity which gave
Fresh flowers for the bridal, green wreaths for the grave!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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