s: Swelled with new life, the darkening elm on high


s: Prints her thick buds against the spotted sky


s: On all her boughs the stately chestnut cleaves


s: The gummy shroud that wraps her embryo leaves;


s: The house-fly, stealing from his narrow grave,


s: Drugged with the opiate that November gave,


s: Beats with faint wing against the sunny pane,


s: Or crawls, tenacious, o'er its lucid plain;


s: In languid curves, the gliding serpent crawls;


s: The bog's green harper, thawing from his sleep,


s: Twangs a hoarse note and tries a shortened leap;


s: On floating rails that face the softening noons


s: The still shy turtles range their dark platoons,


s: Or, toiling aimless o'er the mellowing fields,


s: Trail through the grass their tessellated shields.


s: At last young April, ever frail and fair,


s: Wooed by her playmate with the golden hair,


s: O'er the soft meadows starred with opening buds,


s: In tears and blushes sighs herself away,


s: And hides her cheek beneath the flowers of May.


s: Then the proud tulip lights her beacon blaze,


s: Her clustering curls the hyacinth displays;


s: O'er her tall blades the crested fleur-de-lis,


s: Like blue-eyed Pallas, towers erect and free;


s: With yellower flames the lengthened sunshine glows,


s: And love lays bare the passion-breathing rose;


s: Queen of the lake, along its reedy verge


s: Her snowy shoulders glistening as she strips,


s: Then bursts the song from every leafy glade,


s: Then flash the wings returning Summer calls


s: Through the deep arches of her forest halls,--


s: The bluebird, breathing from his azure plumes


s: The fragrance borrowed where the myrtle blooms;


s: The thrush, poor wanderer, dropping meekly down,


s: The oriole, drifting like a flake of fire


s: Rent by a whirlwind from a blazing spire.


s: The robin, jerking his spasmodic throat,


s: Poised on a bulrush tipsy with his weight;


s: Feels the soft air, and spreads his idle wings.


s: Why dream I here within these caging walls,


s: Deaf to her voice, while blooming Nature calls;


s: Through blinding lenses, or in wearying books?


s: Off, gloomy spectres of the shrivelled past!


s: Fly with the leaves that fill the autumn blast


s: Ye imps of Science, whose relentless chains


s: Lock the warm tides within these living veins,


s: Close your dim cavern, while its captive strays


s: Dazzled and giddy in the morning's blaze!


s: YET in the darksome crypt I left so late,


s: Sepulchral, rayless, joyless as it seems,


s: Shamed by the glare of May's refulgent beams,--


s: While the dim seasons dragged their shrouded train,


s: Its paler splendors were not quite in vain.


s: From these dull bars the cheerful firelight's glow


s: Streamed through the casement o'er the spectral snow;


s: Here, while the night-wind wreaked its frantic will


s: On the loose ocean and the rock-bound hill,


s: Rent the cracked topsail from its quivering yard,


s: And rived the oak a thousand storms had scarred,


s: Fenced by these walls the peaceful taper shone,


s: Nor felt a breath to slant its trembling cone.


s: When the red curtain spread its falling screen;


s: O'er some light task the lonely hours were past,


s: And the long evening only flew too fast;


s: Or the wide chair its leathern arms would lend


s: Stretched on its bosom with relaxing nerves,


s: Slow moulding, plastic, to its hollow curves;


s: Perchance indulging, if of generous creed,


s: In brave Sir Walter's dream-compelling weed.


s: Or, happier still, the evening hour would bring


s: And while the punch-bowl's sounding depths were stirred,--


s: Its silver cherubs smiling as they heard,--


s: Our hearts would open, as at evening's hour


s: The close-sealed primrose frees its hidden flower.


s: Such the warm life this dim retreat has known,


s: Not quite deserted when its guests were flown;


s: Nay, filled with friends, an unobtrusive set,


s: Guiltless of calls and cards and etiquette,


s: Claiming no service, prompt for every task.


s: On those dark shelves no housewife hand profanes,


s: O'er his mute files the monarch folio reigns;


s: A mingled race, the wreck of chance and time,


s: That talk all tongues and breathe of every clime,


s: Each knows his place, and each may claim his part


s: In some quaint corner of his master's heart.


s: This old Decretal, won from Moss's hoards,


s: Thick-leaved, brass-cornered, ribbed with oaken boards,


s: Stands the gray patriarch of the graver rows,


s: Its fourth ripe century narrowing to its close;


s: Not daily conned, but glorious still to view,


s: With glistening letters wrought in red and blue.


s: There towers Stagira's all-embracing sage,


s: There sleep the births of Plato's heavenly mind,


s: In yon dark tomb by jealous clasps confused,


s: Of Yale's grave Head and Killingworth's divine!


s: In those square sheets the songs of Maro fill


s: The silvery types of smooth-leaved Baskerville;


s: Their classic wealth the Elzevirs display.


s: Range the dense volumes of a humbler race;


s: There grim chirurgeons all their mysteries teach,


s: In spectral pictures, or in crabbed speech;


s: Harvey and Haller, fresh from Nature's page,


s: Shoulder the dreamers of an earlier age,


s: That loved to talk of all they could not do.


s: Why count the rest,--those names of later days


s: That many love, and all agree to praise,--


s: Or point the titles, where a glance may read


s: The dangerous lines of party or of creed?


s: Too well, perchance, the chosen list would show


s: What few may care and none can claim to know.


s: Each has his features, whose exterior seal


s: What though for months the tranquil dust descends,


s: Whitening the heads of these mine ancient friends,


s: While the damp offspring of the modern press


s: Flaunts on my table with its pictured dress;


s: Not less I love each dull familiar face,


s: Nor less should miss it from the appointed place;


s: I snatch the book, along whose burning leaves


s: His scarlet web our wild romancer weaves,


s: Yet, while proud Hester's fiery pangs I share,


s: My old MAGNALIA must be standing _there_!


s: WHEN o'er the street the morning peal is flung


s: From yon tall belfry with the brazen tongue,


s: Its wide vibrations, wafted by the gale,


s: To each far listener tell a different tale.


s: The sexton, stooping to the quivering floor


s: Till the great caldron spills its brassy roar,


s: Whirls the hot axle, counting, one by one,


s: Each dull concussion, till his task is done.


s: Toil's patient daughter, when the welcome note


s: Clangs through the silence from the steeple's throat,


s: Streams, a white unit, to the checkered street,


s: Demure, but guessing whom she soon shall meet;


s: The bell, responsive to her secret flame,


s: With every note repeats her lover's name.


s: The lover, tenant of the neighboring lane,


s: Sighing, and fearing lest he sigh in vain,


s: Hears the stern accents, as they come and go,


s: Ocean's rough child, whom many a shore has known


s: Ere homeward breezes swept him to his own,


s: A thousand memories kindling with the sound;


s: The early favorite's unforgotten charms,


s: Whose blue initials stain his tawny arms;


s: His first farewell, the flapping canvas spread,


s: The seaward streamers crackling overhead,


s: His kind, pale mother, not ashamed to weep


s: Her first-born's bridal with the haggard deep,


s: While the brave father stood with tearless eye,


s: Smiling and choking with his last good-by.


s: 'T is but a wave, whose spreading circle beats,


s: With the same impulse, every nerve it meets,


s: Yet who shall count the varied shapes that ride


s: O child of earth! If floating sounds like these


s: Steal from thyself their power to wound or please,


s: If here or there thy changing will inclines,


s: As the bright zodiac shifts its rolling signs,


s: Look at thy heart, and when its depths are known,


s: Then try thy brother's, judging by thine own,


s: But keep thy wisdom to the narrower range,


s: While its own standards are the sport of change,


s: The passing breath that holds thy passion's sway.


s: PERHAPS too far in these considerate days


s: Has patience carried her submissive ways;


s: Wisdom has taught us to be calm and meek,


s: To take one blow, and turn the other cheek;


s: If the rude caitiff smite the other too!


s: Land of our fathers, in thine hour of need


s: God help thee, guarded by the passive creed!


s: As the lone pilgrim trusts to beads and cowl,


s: When through the forest rings the gray wolf's howl;


s: As the deep galleon trusts her gilded prow


s: When the black corsair slants athwart her bow;


s: As the poor pheasant, with his peaceful mien,


s: Trusts to his feathers, shining golden-green,


s: When the dark plumage with the crimson beak


s: Has rustled shadowy from its splintered peak,--


s: So trust thy friends, whose babbling tongues would charm


s: Thy torches ready for the answering peal


s: From bellowing fort and thunder-freighted keel!


s: YON whey-faced brother, who delights to wear


s: Seems of the sort that in a crowded place


s: Whom small disturbance whitens round the lip;


s: One of those harmless spectacled machines,


s: Whom school-boys question if their walk transcends


s: Whom John, obedient to his master's sign,


s: While Peter, glistening with luxurious scorn,


s: Husks his white ivories like an ear of corn;


s: Dark in the brow and bilious in the cheek,


s: Whose yellowish linen flowers but once a week,


s: Conspicuous, annual, in their threadbare suits,


s: And the laced high-lows which they call their boots,


s: Well mayst thou shun that dingy front severe,


s: But him, O stranger, him thou canst not _fear_.


s: Be slow to judge, and slower to despise,


s: The tiger, writhing from the boa's rings,


s: Drops at the fountain where the cobra stings.


s: In that lean phantom, whose extended glove


s: Behold the master that can tame thee down


s: To crouch, the vassal of his Sunday frown;


s: His velvet throat against thy corded wrist,


s: His loosened tongue against thy doubled fist.


s: The MORAL BULLY, though he never swears,


s: Nor kicks intruders down his entry stairs,


s: Though meekness plants his backward-sloping hat,


s: And non-resistance ties his white cravat,


s: Though his black broadcloth glories to be seen


s: In the same plight with Shylock's gaberdine,


s: Hugs the same passion to his narrow breast


s: That heaves the cuirass on the trooper's chest,


s: Hears the same hell-hounds yelling in his rear


s: That chase from port the maddened buccaneer,


s: Feels the same comfort while his acrid words


s: Turn the sweet milk of kindness into curds,


s: Or with grim logic prove, beyond debate,


s: That all we love is worthiest of our hate,


s: As the scarred ruffian of the pirate's deck,


s: When his long swivel rakes the staggering wreck!


s: Heaven keep us all! Is every rascal clown


s: Whose arm is stronger free to knock us down?


s: Has every scarecrow, whose cachectic soul


s: Seems fresh from Bedlam, airing on parole,


s: Who, though he carries but a doubtful trace


s: From lack of marrow or the coins to pay,


s: The right to stick us with his cutthroat terms,


s: And bait his homilies with his brother worms?


s: If always nourished on the selfsame food;


s: The creeping mite may live so if he please,


s: And feed on Stilton till he turns to cheese,


s: But cool Magendie proves beyond a doubt,


s: If mammals try it, that their eyes drop out.


s: No reasoning natures find it safe to feed,


s: It spoils their eyeballs while it spares their tongues,


s: And starves the heart to feed the noisy lungs.


s: When the first larvae on the elm are seen,


s: The crawling wretches, like its leaves, are green;


s: Ere chill October shakes the latest down,


s: They, like the foliage, change their tint to brown;


s: On the blue flower a bluer flower you spy,


s: You stretch to pluck it--'tis a butterfly;


s: The flattened tree-toads so resemble bark,


s: They're hard to find as Ethiops in the dark;


s: The woodcock, stiffening to fictitious mud,


s: Cheats the young sportsman thirsting for his blood;


s: Nay, on one truth, will creatures get its dye;


s: Red, yellow, green, they take their subject's hue,--


s: Except when squabbling turns them black and blue!


s: WE trust and fear, we question and believe,


s: From life's dark threads a trembling faith to weave,


s: Frail as the web that misty night has spun,


s: Whose dew-gemmed awnings glitter in the sun.


s: While the calm centuries spell their lessons out,


s: Each truth we conquer spreads the realm of doubt;


s: When Sinai's summit was Jehovah's throne,


s: The chosen Prophet knew his voice alone;


s: When Pilate's hall that awful question heard,


s: The Heavenly Captive answered not a word.


s: Eternal Truth! beyond our hopes and fears


s: Sweep the vast orbits of thy myriad spheres!


s: From age to age, while History carves sublime


s: On her waste rock the flaming curves of time,


s: How the wild swayings of our planet show


s: That worlds unseen surround the world we know.


s: THE curtain rose; in thunders long and loud


s: The galleries rung; the veteran actor bowed.


s: In flaming line the telltales of the stage


s: Showed on his brow the autograph of age;


s: Pale, hueless waves amid his clustered hair,


s: And umbered shadows, prints of toil and care;


s: Round the wide circle glanced his vacant eye,--


s: He strove to speak,--his voice was but a sigh.


s: Year after year had seen its short-lived race


s: Flit past the scenes and others take their place;


s: Yet the old prompter watched his accents still,


s: His name still flaunted on the evening's bill.


s: Heroes, the monarchs of the scenic floor,


s: Had died in earnest and were heard no more;


s: Beauties, whose cheeks such roseate bloom o'er-spread


s: They faced the footlights in unborrowed red,


s: Had faded slowly through successive shades


s: To gray duennas, foils of younger maids;


s: Sweet voices lost the melting tones that start


s: With Southern throbs the sturdy Saxon heart,


s: While fresh sopranos shook the painted sky


s: With their long, breathless, quivering locust-cry.


s: Yet there he stood,--the man of other days,


s: In the clear present's full, unsparing blaze,


s: While a new April spreads its burnished wings.


s: How bright yon rows that soared in triple tier,


s: Their central sun the flashing chandelier!


s: How dim the eye that sought with doubtful aim


s: Some friendly smile it still might dare to claim


s: How fresh these hearts! his own how worn and cold!


s: Such the sad thoughts that long-drawn sigh had told.


s: No word yet faltered on his trembling tongue;


s: Again, again, the crashing galleries rung.


s: As the old guardsman at the bugle's blast


s: Hears in its strain the echoes of the past,


s: So, as the plaudits rolled and thundered round,


s: A life of memories startled at the sound.


s: He lived again,--the page of earliest days,--


s: Days of small fee and parsimonious praise;


s: Then lithe young Romeo--hark that silvered tone,


s: From those smooth lips--alas! they were his own.


s: Then the bronzed Moor, with all his love and woe,


s: Told his strange tale of midnight melting snow;


s: And dark--plumed Hamlet, with his cloak and blade,


s: Looked on the royal ghost, himself a shade.


s: All in one flash, his youthful memories came,


s: Traced in bright hues of evanescent flame,


s: As the spent swimmer's in the lifelong dream,


s: While the last bubble rises through the stream.


s: Holds o'er the past its undivided reign.


s: For him in vain the envious seasons roll


s: If yet the minstrel's song, the poet's lay,


s: Spring with her birds, or children at their play,


s: Or maiden's smile, or heavenly dream of art,


s: Stir the few life-drops creeping round his heart,


s: Turn to the record where his years are told,--


s: Count his gray hairs,--they cannot make him old!


s: What magic power has changed the faded mime?


s: One breath of memory on the dust of time.


s: As the last window in the buttressed wall


s: Of some gray minster tottering to its fall,


s: Though to the passing crowd its hues are spread,


s: Viewed from within, a radiant glory shows


s: When through its pictured screen the sunlight flows,


s: And kneeling pilgrims on its storied pane


s: See angels glow in every shapeless stain;


s: So streamed the vision through his sunken eye,


s: Clad in the splendors of his morning sky.


s: All the wild hopes his eager boyhood knew,


s: All the young fancies riper years proved true,


s: The sweet, low-whispered words, the winning glance


s: From queens of song, from Houris of the dance,


s: Wealth's lavish gift, and Flattery's soothing phrase,


s: And Beauty's silence when her blush was praise,


s: And melting Pride, her lashes wet with tears,


s: Triumphs and banquets, wreaths and crowns and cheers,


s: Pangs of wild joy that perish on the tongue,


s: And all that poets dream, but leave unsung!


s: In every heart some viewless founts are fed


s: From far-off hillsides where the dews were shed;


s: On the worn features of the weariest face


s: Some youthful memory leaves its hidden trace,


s: The marble basins tell of hidden springs,


s: But, gray with dust, and overgrown with weeds,


s: Their choking jets the passer little heeds,


s: Till time's revenges break their seals away,


s: And, clad in rainbow light, the waters play.


s: Good night, fond dreamer! let the curtain fall


s: The world's a stage, and we are players all.


s: A strange rehearsal! Kings without their crowns,


s: Speak the vain words that mock their throbbing hearts,


s: As Want, stern prompter! spells them out their parts.


s: The tinselled hero whom we praise and pay


s: We smile at children when a painted screen


s: Seems to their simple eyes a real scene;


s: Ask the poor hireling, who has left his throne


s: To seek the cheerless home he calls his own,


s: Which of his double lives most real seems,


s: The world of solid fact or scenic dreams?


s: Canvas, or clouds,--the footlights, or the spheres,--


s: The play of two short hours, or seventy years?


s: Dream on! Though Heaven may woo our open eyes,


s: Through their closed lids we look on fairer skies;


s: Truth is for other worlds, and hope for this;


s: The cheating future lends the present's bliss;


s: Life is a running shade, with fettered hands,


s: That chases phantoms over shifting sands;


s: With ever clutching palms and shackled feet;


s: The airy shapes that mock life's slender chain,


s: The flying joys he strives to clasp in vain,


s: Death only grasps; to live is to pursue,--


s: Dream on! there 's nothing but illusion true!


s: ANGEL of Death! extend thy silent reign!


s: Stretch thy dark sceptre o'er this new domain


s: Has borne to earth its unresisting load;


s: Where the pale slumberer folds his arms below;


s: In the brief lines that hurrying Time can give;


s: Yet, O Destroyer! from thy shrouded throne


s: Look on our gift; this realm is all thine own!


s: Fair is the scene; its sweetness oft beguiled


s: From their dim paths the children of the wild;


s: The dark-haired maiden loved its grassy dells,


s: The feathered warrior claimed its wooded swells,


s: Still on its slopes the ploughman's ridges show


s: The pointed flints that left his fatal bow,


s: Chipped with rough art and slow barbarian toil,--


s: Last of his wrecks that strews the alien soil!


s: Here spread the fields that heaped their ripened store


s: Till the brown arms of Labor held no more;


s: The scythe's broad meadow with its dusky blush;


s: The sickle's harvest with its velvet flush;


s: The green-haired maize, her silken tresses laid,


s: In soft luxuriance, on her harsh brocade;


s: The gourd that swells beneath her tossing plume;


s: The coarser wheat that rolls in lakes of bloom,--


s: Its coral stems and milk-white flowers alive


s: With the wide murmurs of the scattered hive;


s: Here glowed the apple with the pencilled streak


s: Of morning painted on its southern cheek;


s: The pear's long necklace strung with golden drops,


s: Arched, like the banian, o'er its pillared props;


s: Here crept the growths that paid the laborer's care


s: With the cheap luxuries wealth consents to spare;


s: Here sprang the healing herbs which could not save


s: The hand that reared them from the neighboring grave.


s: From task and tribute, Labor yields to thee


s: No more, when April sheds her fitful rain,


s: The sower's hand shall cast its flying grain;


s: No more, when Autumn strews the flaming leaves,


s: The reaper's band shall gird its yellow sheaves;


s: For thee alike the circling seasons flow


s: Till the first blossoms heave the latest snow.


s: In the stiff clod below the whirling drifts,


s: In the loose soil the springing herbage lifts,


s: In the hot dust beneath the parching weeds,


s: Life's withering flower shall drop its shrivelled seeds;


s: Its germ entranced in thy unbreathing sleep


s: Till what thou sowest mightier angels reap!


s: With loveliest Nature all that Art can lend.


s: Come from the bowers where Summer's life-blood flows


s: Through the red lips of June's half-open rose,


s: Dressed in bright hues, the loving sunshine's dower;


s: For tranquil Nature owns no mourning flower.


s: Come from the forest where the beech's screen


s: Bars the fierce moonbeam with its flakes of green;


s: Stay the rude axe that bares the shadowy plains,


s: Stanch the deep wound That dries the maple's veins.


s: Come with the stream whose silver-braided rills


s: Fling their unclasping bracelets from the hills,


s: Till in one gleam, beneath the forest's wings,


s: Melts the white glitter of a hundred springs.


s: Come from the steeps where look majestic forth


s: From their twin thrones the Giants of the North


s: On the huge shapes, that, crouching at their knees,


s: Stretch their broad shoulders, rough with shaggy trees.


s: Through the wide waste of ether, not in vain,


s: Their softened gaze shall reach our distant plain;


s: There, while the mourner turns his aching eyes


s: On the blue mounds that print the bluer skies,


s: Nature shall whisper that the fading view


s: Of mightiest grief may wear a heavenly hue.


s: Teach us to live, not grudging every breath


s: To the chill winds that waft us on to death,


s: And tempering gently every word it forms.


s: Seraph of Love! in heaven's adoring zone,


s: Nearest of all around the central throne,


s: While with soft hands the pillowed turf we spread


s: That soon shall hold us in its dreamless bed,


s: With the low whisper,--Who shall first be laid


s: In the dark chamber's yet unbroken shade?--


s: Let thy sweet radiance shine rekindled here,


s: And all we cherish grow more truly dear.


s: Here in the gates of Death's o'erhanging vault,


s: Oh, teach us kindness for our brother's fault


s: Lay all our wrongs beneath this peaceful sod,


s: And lead our hearts to Mercy and its God.


s: FATHER of all! in Death's relentless claim


s: In the bright flower that decks the solemn bier,


s: We see thy glory in its narrowed sphere;


s: In the deep lessons that affliction draws,


s: We trace the curves of thy encircling laws;


s: In the long sigh that sets our spirits free,


s: We own the love that calls us back to Thee!


s: Through the hushed street, along the silent plain,


s: The spectral future leads its mourning train,


s: Dark with the shadows of uncounted bands,


s: Where man's white lips and woman's wringing hands


s: Track the still burden, rolling slow before,


s: That love and kindness can protect no more;


s: The smiling babe that, called to mortal strife,


s: Shuts its meek eyes and drops its little life;


s: The drooping child who prays in vain to live,


s: And pleads for help its parent cannot give;


s: The pride of beauty stricken in its flower;


s: The strength of manhood broken in an hour;


s: Age in its weakness, bowed by toil and care,


s: Traced in sad lines beneath its silvered hair.


s: The sun shall set, and heaven's resplendent spheres


s: Gild the smooth turf unhallowed yet by tears,


s: But ah! how soon the evening stars will shed


s: Their sleepless light around the slumbering dead!


s: Till the last angel rolls the stone away,


s: The mountain stream that loops and swerves


s: Through my broad meadow's channelled curves


s: The stream that scarfs my spruce-clad hills;


s: While mine are sparks of glittering dew.


s: Such jests, that, drained of every joke,


s: While Time, caught fast in pleasure's chain,


s: The life-blood drawn from English veins,


s: COME, spread your wings, as I spread mine,


s: Till, clasped in many a gathering twine,


s: Till, clustering all their braids in one,


s: The fount was drained that opened first;


s: Take what she gives, her pine's tall stem,


s: Though still the lark-voiced matins ring


s: What though her thousand years have past


s: Fling o'er his mound, ye star-lit bowers,


s: Whose breath has lent your earth-born flowers


s: Breathe, bird of night, thy softest tone,


s: And thine, long lingering on the strand,


s: Unheard through earth's imprisoning bars,


s: THE wreath that star-crowned Shelley gave


s: Though all the Gods their garlands shower,


s: The grass has quenched my white-rayed gem,


s: And gives their birthright to the clown,


s: Meek child of earth! thou wilt not shame


s: ONE broad, white sail in Spezzia's treacherous bay


s: On comes the blast; too daring bark, beware I


s: The cloud has clasped her; to! it melts away;


s: The wide, waste waters, but no sail is there.


s: Midnight: with lamps the long veranda burns;


s: Come, wandering sail, they watch, they burn for thee!


s: Suns come and go, alas! no bark returns.


s: And feet are thronging on the pebbly sands,


s: The shapes uplifted from their coral graves.


s: Vainly they seek; the idle quest is o'er;


s: The coarse, dark women, with their hanging locks,


s: And lean, wild children gather from the shore


s: To the black hovels bedded in the rocks.


s: But Love still prayed, with agonizing wail,


s: "One, one last look, ye heaving waters, yield!"


s: Till Ocean, clashing in his jointed mail,


s: Raised the pale burden on his level shield.


s: Slow from the shore the sullen waves retire;


s: And Death shall crown him with a wreath of flame.


s: Fade, mortal semblance, never to return;


s: Swift is the change within thy crimson shroud;


s: Seal the white ashes in the peaceful urn;


s: All else has risen in yon silvery cloud.


s: Both in the smile of those blue-vaulted skies,


s: Earth's fairest dome of all divinest art.


s: Breathe for his wandering soul one passing sigh,


s: O happier Christian, while thine eye grows dim,--


s: In all the mansions of the house on high,


s: As the voice of the watch to the mariner's dream,


s: As the footstep of Spring on the ice-girdled stream,


s: There comes a soft footstep, a whisper, to me,--


s: We have trod from the threshold of turbulent March,


s: Till the green scarf of April is hung on the larch,


s: And down the bright hillside that welcomes the day,


s: We hear the warm panting of beautiful May.


s: We will part before Summer has opened her wing,


s: And the bosom of June swells the bodice of Spring,


s: While the hope of the season lies fresh in the bud,


s: And the young life of Nature runs warm in our blood.


s: It is but a word, and the chain is unbound,


s: The bracelet of steel drops unclasped to the ground;


s: No hand shall replace it,--it rests where it fell,---


s: It is but one word that we all know too well.


s: Yet the hawk with the wildness untamed in his eye,


s: If you free him, stares round ere he springs to the sky;


s: The slave whom no longer his fetters restrain


s: Will turn for a moment and look at his chain.


s: Our parting is not as the friendship of years,


s: That chokes with the blessing it speaks through its tears;


s: We have walked in a garden, and, looking around,


s: Have plucked a few leaves from the myrtles we found.


s: But now at the gate of the garden we stand,


s: And the moment has come for unclasping the hand;


s: Will you drop it like lead, and in silence retreat


s: Like the twenty crushed forms from an omnibus seat?


s: Nay! hold it one moment,--the last we may share,--


s: I stretch it in kindness, and not for my fare;


s: You may pass through the doorway in rank or in file,


s: If your ticket from Nature is stamped with a smile.


s: For the sweetest of smiles is the smile as we part,


s: When the light round the lips is a ray from the heart;


s: And lest a stray tear from its fountain might swell,


s: We will seal the bright spring with a quiet farewell.


s: 'T WAS a vision of childhood that came with its dawn,


s: Ere the curtain that covered life's day-star was drawn;


s: The nurse told the tale when the shadows grew long,


s: And the mother's soft lullaby breathed it in song.


s: "There flows a fair stream by the hills of the West,"--


s: She sang to her boy as he lay on her breast;


s: "Along its smooth margin thy fathers have played;


s: Beside its deep waters their ashes are laid."


s: I wandered afar from the land of my birth,


s: I saw the old rivers, renowned upon earth,


s: But fancy still painted that wide-flowing stream


s: With the many-hued pencil of infancy's dream.


s: I saw the green banks of the castle-crowned Rhine,


s: Where the grapes drink the moonlight and change it to wine;


s: I stood by the Avon, whose waves as they glide


s: Still whisper his glory who sleeps at their side.


s: But my heart would still yearn for the sound of the waves


s: That sing as they flow by my forefathers' graves;


s: If manhood yet honors my cheek with a tear,


s: I care not who sees it,--no blush for it here!


s: Farewell to the deep-bosomed stream of the West!


s: I fling this loose blossom to float on its breast;


s: Nor let the dear love of its children grow cold,


s: Till the channel is dry where its waters have rolled!


s: The waves that tracked the Pilgrim's plough.


s: Then sprang from many a rock-strewn field


s: The hillsides gleamed with golden maize.


s: There childhood flung its rustling stone,


s: There venturous boyhood learned to climb,--


s: Freckled and splashed with streak and spot,


s: Her deep-cleft bosom scarfed with green,--


s: When blossoms sighed their last perfume,


s: One bough sustained his trembling weight;


s: If, drained by noontide's parching beams,


s: With smoke-wreaths from the burning plain;


s: Till Heaven unsealed its hoarded springs,


s: Would pour the fountain's quickening dew


s: From their stern fathers' free estate,--


s: NEW ENGLAND, we love thee; no time can erase


s: From the hearts of thy children the smile on thy face.


s: 'T is the mother's fond look of affection and pride,


s: As she gives her fair son to the arms of his bride.


s: His bride may be fresher in beauty's young flower;


s: But passion must chill in Time's pitiless blast;


s: The one that first loved us will love to the last.


s: You have left the dear land of the lake and the hill,


s: But its winds and its waters will talk with you still.


s: "Forget not," they whisper, "your love is our debt,"


s: And echo breathes softly, "We never forget."


s: The banquet's gay splendors are gleaming around,


s: But your hearts have flown back o'er the waves of the Sound;


s: They have found the brown home where their pulses were born;


s: They are throbbing their way through the trees and the corn.


s: There are roofs you remember,--their glory is fled;


s: There are mounds in the churchyard,--one sigh for the dead.


s: There are wrecks, there are ruins, all scattered around;


s: But Earth has no spot like that corner of ground.


s: Come, let us be cheerful,--remember last night,


s: How they cheered us, and--never mind--meant it all right;


s: To-night, we harm nothing,--we love in the lump;


s: Here's a bumper to Maine, in the juice of the pump!


s: Here 's to all the good people, wherever they be,


s: Who have grown in the shade of the liberty-tree;


s: We all love its leaves, and its blossoms and fruit,


s: But pray have a care of the fence round its root.


s: We should like to talk big; it's a kind of a right,


s: When the tongue has got loose and the waistband grown tight;


s: But, as pretty Miss Prudence remarked to her beau,


s: On its own heap of compost no biddy should crow.


s: Enough! There are gentlemen waiting to talk,


s: Whose words are to mine as the flower to the stalk.


s: Stand by your old mother whatever befall;


s: God bless all her children! Good night to you all!


s: FAREWELL, for the bark has her breast to the tide,


s: And the rough arms of Ocean are stretched for his bride;


s: The winds from the mountain stream over the bay;


s: One clasp of the hand, then away and away!


s: I see the tall mast as it rocks by the shore;


s: The sun is declining, I see it once more;


s: To-day like the blade in a thick-waving field,


s: To-morrow the spike on a Highlander's shield.


s: Alone, while the cloud pours its treacherous breath,


s: With the blue lips all round her whose kisses are death;


s: Ah, think not the breeze that is urging her sail


s: Has left her unaided to strive with the gale.


s: There are hopes that play round her, like fires on the mast,


s: That will light the dark hour till its danger has past;


s: There are prayers that will plead with the storm when it raves,


s: And whisper "Be still!" to the turbulent waves.


s: Nay, think not that Friendship has called us in vain


s: To join the fair ring ere we break it again;


s: There is strength in its circle,--you lose the bright star,


s: But its sisters still chain it, though shining afar.


s: I give you one health in the juice of the vine,


s: The blood of the vineyard shall mingle with mine;


s: Thus, thus let us drain the last dew-drops of gold,


s: As we empty our hearts of the blessings they hold.


s: Though years have clipped the eagle's plume


s: The hunts where gallant hearts were game,


s: The raid that swooped with sword and flame,


s: While fluttering round the beacon-light,--


s: Till through the cloud of fortune's wrong


s: The kindling thought, the throbbing words,


s: Through his arm the Lord hath freed her;


s: We, whose sires their blood have mingled


s: The world-tried sailor tires and droops;


s: Some larger soul hath lived and wrought,


s: The boundless realms of deed and thought,--


s: Yet, while these pictured lines I trace,


s: Dark, calm, large-fronted, lightning-eyed,


s: The boundless prairies learned his name,


s: Whose heart was like the streaming eaves


s: Death's cold white hand is like the snow


s: Where the sweet wailing singers slumber,


s: The wild-flowers who will stoop to number?


s: Whose song has told their hearts' sad story,--


s: But where the glistening night-dews weep


s: Till Death pours out his longed-for wine


s: Slow-dropped from Misery's crushing presses,--


s: Pours the swift rain-drops, blending, as they fall,


s: To evening's ocean, with the tangled braid


s: And, as a moment turns its slender rill,


s: One to long darkness and the frozen tide,


s: Please thy light fancy with the easy task


s: The drops of mercy choosing, as they part,


s: To love's sweet day-star, that shall o'er thee burn


s: When the white angel with the freezing hand


s: What Heaven has lent thee wilt thou freely give,


s: Behold, the tears that soothed thy sister's woe


s: Snatched from the whirlpool's narrowing flow


s: Drew near to greet us,--spoke, and smiled.


s: How shall our smooth-turned phrase relate


s: So turned the rose-wreathed revellers pale.


s: Her heart shall teach, her hand shall learn


s: Has crowned her deeds with saintly fame.


s: That rings her brow with heavenly flame.


s: The smooth, soft air with pulse-like waves


s: Flows murmuring through its hidden caves,


s: Whose streams of brightening purple rush,


s: Creeps back to find the throbbing heart.


s: Wakes the hushed spirit through thine ear


s: Through pastures green, the Master's sheep?


s: Who hopes for man, through guilt and shame,


s: Where lives the saint, if such be known?--


s: Yet, o'er thee, bright with beams unshorn,


s: When years have touched with hallowing age


s: This was the prison which his soul looked through,


s: And his dead name--that dear familiar word--


s: Living, for him the minstrel's lyre was strung:


s: And the long bondage of his martyr-chain


s: As, girt with stormy seas, his island lake,


s: Grieve not for him whose heart had gone before


s: Where the calm shadows that his soul loved best


s: And if some natural tears are softly shed,


s: For the long hours before the morning's light,


s: Close by those mounds which hold his loved, his own,--


s: Till Heaven's bright watchers slumber in the sky


s: My flower of love that falls half blown,


s: Bowed down in speechless grief like thine.


s: "Where have ye laid him?" "Come," they say,


s: He weeps with thee, with all that mourn,


s: Good night, poor Martha,--sleep in peace!


s: Where all the robes are stainless white.


s: I THANK you, MR. PRESIDENT, you've kindly broke the ice;


s: Virtue should always be the first,--I 'm only SECOND VICE--


s: (A vice is something with a screw that's made to hold its jaw


s: Till some old file has played away upon an ancient saw).


s: Sweet brothers by the Mother's side, the babes of days gone by,


s: All nurslings of her Juno breasts whose milk is never dry,


s: We come again, like half-grown boys, and gather at her beck


s: About her knees, and on her lap, and clinging round her neck.


s: We find her at her stately door, and in her ancient chair,


s: Dressed in the robes of red and green she always loved to wear.


s: Her eye has all its radiant youth, her cheek its morning flame;


s: We drop our roses as we go, hers flourish still the same.


s: We have been playing many an hour, and far away we've strayed,


s: Some laughing in the cheerful sun, some lingering in the shade;


s: How many boys have joined the game, how many slipped away,


s: Since we've been running up and down, and having out our play!


s: One boy at work with book and brief, and one with gown and band,


s: One sailing vessels on the pool, one digging sand,


s: One flying paper kites on change, one planting little pills,--


s: The seeds of certain annual flowers well known as little bills.


s: What maidens met us on our way, and clasped us hand in hand!


s: What cherubs,--not the legless kind, that fly, but never stand!


s: How many a youthful head we've seen put on its silver crown


s: What sudden changes back again to youth's empurpled brown!


s: We've seen the sparks of Empire fly beyond the mountain bars,


s: To find the planet's vertebrae and sink its spinal cord.


s: Just so those earlier sages shared the chaplet of renown,--


s: We've seen the little tricks of life, its varnish and veneer,


s: Its stucco-fronts of character flake off and disappear,


s: Till, having nearly played our game, she gayly whispered, "Ah!


s: I said you should be something grand,--you'll soon be grandpapa."


s: The wisest was a Freshman once, just freed from bar and bolt,


s: As noisy as a kettle-drum, as leggy as a colt;


s: Don't be too savage with the boys,--the Primer does not say


s: The kitten ought to go to church because the cat doth prey.


s: The law of merit and of age is not the rule of three;


s: Non constat that A. M. must prove as busy as A. B.


s: Now then, old boys, and reverend youth, of high or low degree,


s: Remember how we only get one annual out of three,


s: And such as dare to simmer down three dinners into one


s: Must cut their salads mighty short, and pepper well with fun.


s: I've passed my zenith long ago, it's time for me to set;


s: A dozen planets wait to shine, and I am lingering yet,


s: As sometimes in the blaze of day a milk-and-watery moon


s: Stains with its dim and fading ray the lustrous blue of noon.


s: Farewell! yet let one echo rise to shake our ancient hall;


s: God save the Queen,--whose throne is here,--the Mother of us all


s: Till dawns the great commencement-day on every shore and sea,


s: And "Expectantur" all mankind, to take their last Degree!


s: The brands that scorch, the blades that shine,


s: The scars we leave, the "cures" we tell?


s: Some wrecks of life from aches and ails;


s: While Shenstone strained in feeble flights


s: While Wolfe was climbing Abraham's heights


s: Through wealth and want, through woe and bliss,


s: I REMEMBER--why, yes! God bless me! and was it so long ago?


s: I fear I'm growing forgetful, as old folks do, you know;


s: It must have been in 'forty--I would say 'thirty-nine--


s: We talked this matter over, I and a friend of mine.


s: He said, "Well now, old fellow, I'm thinking that you and I,


s: If we act like other people, shall be older by and by;


s: What though the bright blue ocean is smooth as a pond can be,


s: There is always a line of breakers to fringe the broadest sea.


s: "We're taking it mighty easy, but that is nothing strange,


s: For up to the age of thirty we spend our years like Change;


s: "I know it," I said, "old fellow; you speak the solemn truth;


s: A man can't live to a hundred and likewise keep his youth;


s: But what if the ten years coming shall silver-streak my hair,


s: You know I shall then be forty; of course I shall not care.


s: "At forty a man grows heavy and tired of fun and noise;


s: Leaves dress to the five-and-twenties and love to the silly boys;


s: But high-low shoes and flannels and good thick worsted hose."


s: But one fine August morning I found myself awake


s: My birthday:--By Jove, I'm forty! Yes, forty, and no mistake!


s: Why, this is the very milestone, I think I used to hold,


s: That when a fellow had come to, a fellow would then be old!


s: But that is the young folks' nonsense; they're full of their


s: A man's in his prime at forty,--I see that plain enough;


s: At fifty a man is wrinkled, and may be bald or gray;


s: I call men old at fifty, in spite of all they say.


s: At last comes another August with mist and rain and shine;


s: Its mornings are slowly counted and creep to twenty-nine,


s: And when on the western summits the fading light appears,


s: It touches with rosy fingers the last of my fifty years.


s: So any elderly person that strives to shirk his years,


s: Make him stand up at a table and try him by his peers.


s: Now here I stand at fifty, my jury gathered round;


s: Sprinkled with dust of silver, but not yet silver-crowned,


s: Ready to meet your verdict, waiting to hear it told;


s: Guilty of fifty summers; speak! Is the verdict _old_.


s: No! say that his hearing fails him; say that his sight grows dim;


s: Losing his wits and temper, but pleading, to make amends,


s: The youth of his fifty summers he finds in his twenty friends.


s: With trunks that lean and boughs that turn,


s: Bent eastward by the mastering breeze,--


s: The streets are thronged with trampling feet,


s: The northern hill is ridged with graves,


s: The stones of King Street still are red,


s: The war-horse stamps, the bayonets shine.


s: And soon their whistling showers shall stain


s: They span the waves, they belt the plains,


s: They skirt the roads with bands of white,


s: Though with the wild-bird's restless wings


s: Or chased the moonlight's endless rings!


s: Do you know the Old Man of the Sea, of the Sea?


s: Have you met with that dreadful old man?


s: If you have n't been caught, you will be, you will be;


s: He does n't hold on by your throat, by your throat,


s: But he grapples you tight by the coat, by the coat,


s: There's the charm of a snake in his eye, in his eye,


s: You cannot go back, nor get by, nor get by,


s: If you look at the spot where he stands.


s: Oh, you're grabbed! See his claw on your sleeve, on your sleeve!


s: You're a Christian, no doubt you believe, you believe


s: Is the breakfast-hour past? They must wait, they must wait,


s: While the Johnny-cake burns on the grate, on the grate,


s: And the toast is done frightfully brown.


s: Yes, your dinner will keep; let it cool, let it cool,


s: And children half-starved go to school, go to school;


s: Hark! the bell for the train! "Come along! Come along!


s: There's a maid with a cheek like a peach, like a peach,


s: That is waiting for you in the church;--


s: But he clings to your side like a leech, like a leech,


s: And you leave your lost bride in the lurch.


s: There's a babe in a fit,--hurry quick! hurry quick!


s: The baby is off, while you stick, while you stick,


s: I have looked on the face of the Bore, of the Bore;


s: I have welcomed the Flat at my door, at my door;


s: I have walked like a lamb by the friend, by the friend,


s: I have borne the stale talk without end, without end,


s: But my hamstrings grow loose, and I shake, and I shake,


s: Yea, I quiver and quake, and I take, and I take,


s: Oh the dreadful Old Man of the Sea, of the Sea


s: He has had his cold claw upon me, upon me,--


s: To stanch these wounds that vainly bleed,--


s: SHE has gone,--she has left us in passion and pride,--


s: Our stormy-browed sister, so long at our side!


s: She has torn her own star from our firmament's glow,


s: And turned on her brother the face of a foe!


s: Oh, Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun,


s: We can never forget that our hearts have been one,--


s: Our foreheads both sprinkled in Liberty's name,


s: From the fountain of blood with the finger of flame!


s: You were always too ready to fire at a touch;


s: But we said, "She is hasty,--she does not mean much."


s: We have scowled, when you uttered some turbulent threat;


s: But Friendship still whispered, "Forgive and forget!"


s: Has our love all died out? Have its altars grown cold?


s: Has the curse come at last which the fathers foretold?


s: Then Nature must teach us the strength of the chain


s: That her petulant children would sever in vain.


s: They may fight till the buzzards are gorged with their spoil,


s: Till the harvest grows black as it rots in the soil,


s: Till the wolves and the catamounts troop from their eaves,


s: And the shark tracks the pirate, the lord of the waves:


s: In vain is the strife! When its fury is past,


s: Their fortunes must flow in one channel at last,


s: As the torrents that rush from the mountains of snow


s: Roll mingled in peace through the valleys below.


s: Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky


s: Man breaks not the medal, when God cuts the die!


s: Though darkened with sulphur, though cloven with steel,


s: The blue arch will brighten, the waters will heal!


s: Oh, Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun,


s: There are battles with Fate that can never be won!


s: The star-flowering banner must never be furled,


s: For its blossoms of light are the hope of the world!


s: Go, then, our rash sister! afar and aloof,


s: Run wild in the sunshine away from our roof;


s: But when your heart aches and your feet have grown sore,


s: Remember the pathway that leads to our door!


s: The Goblet and the Sun (Vas-Sol), sculptured on a free-stone slab


s: Charles Chauncy Emerson; died May 9, 1836.


s: Mr. Emerson has quoted some lines from this poem, but


s: somewhat disguised as he recalled them. It is never safe to


s: quote poetry without referring to the original.


s: The churches referred to in the lines which follow are,--


s: When o'er thy perch the leaves were spread


s: How deep the shade! the groves how fair!


s: The ploughshare, changed to stubborn rock,


s: Sing, little bird! the frosts have come.


s: Fast, fast the lengthening shadows creep,


s: The pulse that warms thy breast grow cold,


s: Sing, little bird! 't will soon be night.


s: Smooth, square forehead with uprolled hair;


s: Look! there's a rent the light shines through,


s: Flat as a rose that has long been pressed;


s: And still to the three-billed rebel town


s: The youthful sire and the gray-haired son.


s: The bodice swelled with the bosom's thrill?


s: Through all the battles of wave and blast,


s: There were tones in the voice that whispered then


s: Edward's and Dorothy's--all their own,--


s: For the tender whisper that bade me live?


s: I will heal the stab of the Red-Coat's blade,


s: And freshen the gold of the tarnished frame,


s: And gild with a rhyme your household name;


s: So you shall smile on us brave and bright


s: As first you greeted the morning's light,


s: Through a second youth of a hundred years.


s: (Forgive me, Heaven, my wandering eyes!)


s: Through quavering hymns and panting psalms.


s: Though all unmatched the player's skill,


s: But when the seventh day's sunshine falls


s: He breathes, he sings, he shouts, he fills


s: The quivering air with rapturous thrills;


s: Through which the breath of being strays,


s: THE house was crammed from roof to floor,


s: That coal-black hair, that smoke-brown hue,--


s: That slumber, tongueless, in their cage;


s: In vain my conscience whispered, "Shame!


s: The mantling blood shows faintly through;


s: And thou couldst scorn the peerless blood


s: "Thy prophets caught the Spirit's flame,


s: With thee the Father deigned to dwell,--


s: That burned and stained the orient skies


s: Love, though he break his earthly chain,


s: Shall teach our half-fledged souls to fly,


s: Read at a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society.


s: Fast spread the tempest's darkening pall,


s: How fast the stragglers join the throng,


s: The cooper's boys have dropped the adze,


s: The ropewalk lends its 'prentice crew,--


s: The waves that wrought a century's wreck


s: SLOW toiling upward from' the misty vale,


s: I leave the bright enamelled zones below;


s: No more for me their beauteous bloom shall glow,


s: Their lingering sweetness load the morning gale;


s: Few are the slender flowerets, scentless, pale,


s: That on their ice-clad stems all trembling blow


s: Yet with unsaddened voice thy verge I hail,


s: White realm of peace above the flowering line;


s: Welcome thy frozen domes, thy rocky spires!


s: O'er thee undimmed the moon-girt planets shine,


s: That filled the air with smoke of vain desires,


s: And all the unclouded blue of heaven is thine!


s: Where flatterers fawn and menials crouch,


s: If Heaven should lose and Hell should win,


s: LISTEN, young heroes! your country is calling!


s: Time strikes the hour for the brave and the true!


s: Now, while the foremost are fighting and falling,


s: Fill up the ranks that have opened for you!


s: You whom the fathers made free and defended,


s: Stain not the scroll that emblazons their fame


s: You whose fair heritage spotless descended,


s: Leave not your children a birthright of shame!


s: Stay not for questions while Freedom. stands gasping!


s: Wait not till Honor lies wrapped in his pall!


s: Brief the lips' meeting be, swift the hands' clasping,--


s: "Off for the wars!" is enough for them all!


s: Break from the arms that would fondly caress you!


s: Hark! 't is the bugle-blast, sabres are drawn!


s: Mothers shall pray for you, fathers shall bless you,


s: Maidens shall weep for you when you are gone!


s: Never or now! cries the blood of a nation,


s: Poured on the turf where the red rose should bloom;


s: Now is the day and the hour of salvation,--


s: Never or now! peals the trumpet of doom!


s: Never or now! roars the hoarse-throated cannon


s: Through the black canopy blotting the skies;


s: Never or now! flaps the shell-blasted pennon


s: O'er the deep ooze where the Cumberland lies!


s: From the foul dens where our brothers are dying,


s: Aliens and foes in the land of their birth,--


s: From the rank swamps where our martyrs are lying


s: Pleading in vain for a handful of earth,--


s: From the hot plains where they perish outnumbered,


s: Furrowed and ridged by the battle-field's plough,


s: Comes the loud summons; too long you have slumbered,


s: Hear the last Angel-trump,--Never or Now!


s: Shrieked from their dens,--"it shall be two!


s: That scowls on all the thrones of earth,


s: One country still, though foe and "friend"


s: Safe! safe' though all the fiends of hell


s: The cannons frown by shore and stream,--


s: That bolt of wrath shall scourge the land


s: WASHED in the blood of the brave and the blooming,


s: Snatched from the altars of insolent foes,


s: Burning with star-fires, but never consuming,


s: Flash its broad ribbons of lily and rose.


s: Vainly the prophets of Baal would rend it,


s: Vainly his worshippers pray for its fall;


s: Thousands have died for it, millions defend it,


s: Justice that reddens the sky with her terrors,


s: Mercy that comes with her white-handed train,


s: Soothing all passions, redeeming all errors,


s: 'Sheathing the sabre and breaking the chain.


s: Bearing the rainbow of hope to the nations,


s: Torn from the storm-cloud and flung to the breeze!


s: God bless the Flag and its loyal defenders,


s: While its broad folds o'er the battle-field wave,


s: Till the dim star-wreath rekindle its splendors,


s: Washed from its stains in the blood of the brave!


s: With grateful hearts we sing thy praise;


s: Break in their grasp the shield and sword,


s: Our lips should fill the air with praise,


s: They would follow the sign their banners bore,


s: Ah, the marrow was true in your children's bones


s: That sprinkled with blood the cursed stones


s: Than the army of worms that gnawed below;


s: Our children shall tell of the strife begun


s: LAND where the banners wave last in the sun,


s: Blazoned with star-clusters, many in one,


s: Floating o'er prairie and mountain and sea;


s: Hark! 't is the voice of thy children to thee!


s: Still in thy cause to be loyal and true,--


s: True to thy flag on the field and the wave,


s: Sound but one bugle-blast! Lo! at the sign


s: Hope of the world! thou'hast broken its chains,--


s: Wear thy bright arms while a tyrant remains,


s: Stand for the right till the nations shall own


s: Freedom their sovereign, with Law for her throne!


s: Freedom! sweet Freedom! our voices resound,


s: Queen by God's blessing, unsceptred, uncrowned!


s: Freedom, sweet Freedom, our pulses repeat,


s: Warm with her life-blood, as long as they beat!


s: Fold the broad banner-stripes over her breast,--


s: Earth for her heritage, God for her friend,


s: She shall reign over us, world without end!


s: From treason's rent, from murder's stain,


s: Guard Thou its folds till Peace shall reign,--


s: Till fort and field, till shore and sea,


s: From blasts that chill, from suns that smite,


s: Though from our darkened lives they take


s: Our blood their flowing veins will shed,


s: WHAT flower is this that greets the morn,


s: The storm-winds rocked its swelling bud,


s: Its opening leaves were streaked with blood,


s: With spotless white from Northern snows,


s: Thy sacred leaves, fair Freedom's flower,


s: Now, while our soldiers are fighting our battles,


s: Down among rebels and contraband chattels,


s: What are you doing, my sweet little man?


s: All the brave boys under canvas are sleeping,


s: All of them pressing to march with the van,


s: Far from the home where their sweethearts are weeping;


s: What are you waiting for, sweet little man?


s: You with the terrible warlike mustaches,


s: You with the waist made for sword-belts and sashes,


s: Where are your shoulder-straps, sweet little man?


s: Bring him the buttonless garment of woman!


s: That is the corps for the sweet little man!


s: Give him for escort a file of young misses,


s: Each of them armed with a deadly rattan;


s: They shall defend him from laughter and hisses,


s: Aimed by low boys at the sweet little man.


s: All the fair maidens about him shall cluster,


s: Pluck the white feathers from bonnet and fan,


s: Make him a plume like a turkey-wing duster,--


s: That is the crest for the sweet little man!


s: Oh, but the Apron-String Guards are the fellows


s: Drilling each day since our troubles began,--


s: "Handle your walking-sticks!"  "Shoulder umbrellas!"


s: That is the style for the sweet little man!


s: Have we a nation to save? In the first place


s: Saving ourselves is the sensible plan,--


s: Surely the spot where there's shooting's the worst place


s: Where I can stand, says the sweet little man.


s: Catch me confiding my person with strangers!


s: Think how the cowardly Bull-Runners ran!


s: In the brigade of the Stay-at-Home Rangers


s: Marches my corps, says the sweet little man.


s: Such was the stuff of the Malakoff-takers,


s: Such were the soldiers that scaled the Redan;


s: Truculent housemaids and bloodthirsty Quakers,


s: Brave not the wrath of the sweet little man!


s: Yield him the sidewalk, ye nursery maidens!


s: _Sauve qui peut_! Bridget, and right about! Ann;--


s: Fierce as a shark in a school of menhadens,


s: See him advancing, the sweet little man!


s: When the red flails of the battle-field's threshers


s: Beat out the continent's wheat from its bran,


s: While the wind scatters the chaffy seceshers,


s: What will become of our sweet little man?


s: When the brown soldiers come back from the borders,


s: How will he look while his features they scan?


s: How will he feel when he gets marching orders,


s: Signed by his lady love? sweet little man!


s: Fear not for him, though the rebels expect him,--


s: Life is too precious to shorten its span;


s: Woman her broomstick shall raise to protect him,


s: Will she not fight for the sweet little man?


s: Now then, nine cheers for the Stay-at-Home Ranger!


s: Blow the great fish-horn and beat the big pan!


s: First in the field that is farthest from danger,


s: Take your white-feather plume, sweet little man!


s: FLAG of the heroes who left us their glory,


s: Borne through their battle-fields' thunder and flame,


s: Blazoned in song and illumined in story,


s: Wave o'er us all who inherit their fame!


s: Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore,


s: Light of our firmament, guide of our Nation,


s: Pride of her children, and honored afar,


s: Let the wide beams of thy full constellation


s: Scatter each cloud that would darken a star


s: Empire unsceptred! what foe shall assail thee,


s: Think not the God of thy fathers shall fail thee,


s: Striving with men for the birthright of man!


s: Yet if, by madness and treachery blighted,


s: Dawns the dark hour when the sword thou must draw,


s: Then with the arms of thy millions united,


s: Smite the bold traitors to Freedom and Law!


s: Lord of the Universe! shield us and guide us,


s: Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun!


s: Thou hast united us, who shall divide us?


s: One ray still cheered our straining eyes,


s: Those clustered lamps of Heaven that burn


s: SHADOWED so long by the storm-cloud of danger,


s: Thou whom the prayers of an empire defend,


s: Welcome, thrice welcome! but not as a stranger,


s: Come to the nation that calls thee its friend!


s: Bleak are our shores with the blasts of December,


s: Fettered and chill is the rivulet's flow;


s: Throbbing and warm are the hearts that remember


s: Who was our friend when the world was our foe.


s: Look on the lips that are smiling to greet thee,


s: See the fresh flowers that a people has strewn


s: Count them thy sisters and brothers that meet thee;


s: Guest of the Nation, her heart is thine own!


s: Fires of the North, in eternal communion,


s: Blend your broad flashes with evening's bright star!


s: God bless the Empire that loves the Great Union;


s: Strength to her people! Long life to the Czar!


s: ONE word to the guest we have gathered to greet!


s: The echoes are longing that word to repeat,--


s: It springs to the lips that are waiting to part,


s: For its syllables spell themselves first in the heart.


s: Its accents may vary, its sound may be strange,


s: But it bears a kind message that nothing can change;


s: The dwellers by Neva its meaning can tell,


s: For the smile, its interpreter, shows it full well.


s: That word! How it gladdened the Pilgrim yore,


s: As he stood in the snow on the desolate shore!


s: When the shout of the sagamore startled his ear


s: In the phrase of the Saxon, 't was music to hear!


s: Ah, little could Samoset offer our sire,--


s: The cabin, the corn-cake, the seat by the fire;


s: He had nothing to give,--the poor lord of the land,--


s: But he gave him a WELCOME,--his heart in his hand!


s: The tribe of the sachem has melted away,


s: But the word that he spoke is remembered to-day,


s: And the page that is red with the record of shame


s: The tear-drops have whitened round Samoset's name.


s: The word that he spoke to the Pilgrim of old


s: May sound like a tale that has often been told;


s: But the welcome we speak is as fresh as the dew,--


s: As the kiss of a lover, that always is new!


s: Ay, Guest of the Nation! each roof is thine own


s: Through all the broad continent's star-bannered zone;


s: From the shore where the curtain of morn is uprolled,


s: To the billows that flow through the gateway of gold.


s: The snow-crested mountains are calling aloud;


s: And Shasta shouts forth, from his throne in the sky,


s: To the storm-splintered summits, the peaks of Altai!


s: You must leave him, they say, till the summer is green!


s: Both shores are his home, though the waves roll between;


s: And then we'll return him, with thanks for the same,


s: As fresh and as smiling and tall as he came.


s: But ours is the region of arctic delight;


s: We can show him auroras and pole-stars by night;


s: There's a Muscovy sting in the ice-tempered air,


s: And our firesides are warm and our maidens are fair.


s: The flowers are full-blown in the garlanded hall,--


s: They will bloom round his footsteps wherever they fall;


s: For the splendors of youth and the sunshine they bring


s: Make the roses believe 't is the summons of Spring.


s: One word of our language he needs must know well,


s: But another remains that is harder to spell;


s: We shall speak it so ill, if he wishes to learn


s: How we utter Farewell, he will have to return!


s: Scourged by passions, doubts, and fears,


s: WE welcome you, Lords of the Land of the Sun!


s: The voice of the many sounds feebly through one;


s: Ah! would 't were a voice of more musical tone,


s: But the dog-star is here, and the song-birds have flown.


s: And what shall I sing that can cheat you of smiles,


s: Ye heralds of peace from the Orient isles?


s: You are welcome, but oh! you're a little too late!


s: We have greeted our brothers of Ireland and France,


s: Round the fiddle of Strauss we have joined in the dance,


s: We have lagered Herr Saro, that fine-looking man,


s: And glorified Godfrey, whose name it is Dan.


s: What a pity! we've missed it and you've missed it too,


s: We'd have shown you--provided, of course, you had come--


s: And then the great organ! The chorus's shout


s: Like the mixture teetotalers call "Cold without"--


s: A mingling of elements, strong, but not sweet;


s: And the drum, just referred to, that "couldn't be beat."


s: The shrines of our pilgrims are not like your own,


s: Where white Fusiyama lifts proudly its cone,


s: (The snow-mantled mountain we see on the fan


s: But ours the wide temple where worship is free


s: As the wind of the prairie, the wave of the sea;


s: You may build your own altar wherever you will,


s: For the roof of that temple is over you still.


s: One dome overarches the star-bannered shore;


s: You may enter the Pope's or the Puritan's door,


s: Or pass with the Buddhist his gateway of bronze,


s: For a priest is but Man, be he bishop or bonze.


s: And the lesson we teach with the sword and the pen


s: Is to all of God's children, "We also are men!


s: If you wrong us we smart, if you prick us we bleed,


s: If you love us, no quarrel with color or creed!"


s: You'll find us a well-meaning, free-spoken crowd,


s: Good-natured enough, but a little too loud,--


s: To be sure, there is always a bit of a row


s: When we choose our Tycoon, and especially now.


s: You'll take it all calmly,--we want you to see


s: What a peaceable fight such a contest can be,


s: And of one thing be certain, however it ends,


s: You will find that our voters have chosen your friends.


s: If the horse that stands saddled is first in the race,


s: You will greet your old friend with the weed in his face;


s: And if the white hat and the White House agree,


s: You'll find H. G. really as loving as he.


s: But oh, what a pity--once more I must say--


s: Such greeting we give you to-night as we can;


s: The Lord of the mountain looks down from his crest


s: As the banner of morning unfurls in the West;


s: The Eagle was always the friend of the Sun;


s: You are welcome!--The song of the cage-bird is done.


s: This life that men so honor, love, and bless


s: Has filled thine olden measure. Not the less.


s: We count the precious seasons that remain;


s: Strike not the level of the golden grain,


s: But heap it high with years, that earth may gain.


s: What heaven can lose,--for heaven is rich in song


s: Their broken chants amid the seraph throng,


s: Where, blind no more, Ionia's bard is seen,


s: And England's heavenly minstrel sits between


s: The Mantuan and the wan-cheeked Florentine?


s: This was the first sweet singer in the cage


s: Spare us, oh spare us long our heart's desire!


s: Moloch, who calls our children through the fire,


s: Leaves us the gentle master of the lyre.


s: The hours, the minutes, that his sands have run;


s: Rather, as on those flowers that one by one.


s: From earliest dawn their ordered bloom display


s: Till evening's planet with her guiding ray


s: Leads in the blind old mother of the day,


s: We reckon by his songs, each song a flower,


s: The long, long daylight, numbering hour by hour,


s: Each breathing sweetness like a bridal bower.


s: His evening primrose has not opened yet;


s: Nay, even if creeping Time should hide the skies


s: In midnight from his century-laden eyes,


s: Would not some hidden song-bud open bright


s: That floods the gloom with fragrance and with


s: How can we praise the verse whose music flows


s: Pure as the dew that filters through the rose?


s: How shall we thank him that in evil days


s: He faltered never,--nor for blame, nor praise,


s: Nor hire, nor party, shamed his earlier lays?


s: So to his youth his manly years were true,


s: All dyed in royal purple through and through!


s: He for whose touch the lyre of Heaven is strung


s: Needs not the flattering toil of mortal tongue


s: Let not the singer grieve to die unsung!


s: Marbles forget their message to mankind:


s: In his own verse the poet still we find,


s: In his own page his memory lives enshrined,


s: As in their amber sweets the smothered bees,--


s: As the fair cedar, fallen before the breeze,


s: Lies self-embalmed amidst the mouldering trees.


s: Poets, like youngest children, never grow


s: Out of their mother's fondness. Nature so


s: Holds their soft hands, and will not let them go,


s: Till at the last they track with even feet


s: Her rhythmic footsteps, and their pulses beat


s: Twinned with her pulses, and their lips repeat.


s: The secrets she has told them, as their own


s: Thus is the inmost soul of Nature known,


s: And the rapt minstrel shares her awful throne!


s: Where Love himself with tremulous step intrudes,


s: Her snows fall harmless on thy sacred fire


s: Far be the day that claims thy sounding lyre


s: Yet, since life's amplest measure must be filled,


s: Since throbbing hearts must be forever stilled,


s: And all must fade that evening sunsets gild,


s: Grant, Father, ere he close the mortal eyes


s: Its smoke may vanish from these blackened skies!


s: Then, when his summons comes, since come it must,


s: And, looking heavenward with unfaltering trust,


s: He wraps his drapery round him for the dust,


s: His last fond glance will show him o'er his head


s: The Northern fires beyond the zenith spread


s: In lambent glory, blue and white and red,--


s: The Southern cross without its bleeding load,


s: The milky way of peace all freshly strowed,


s: And every white-throned star fixed in its lost


s: When they heard our friend had planned his


s: Van Tromp's proud besom fades from sight,


s: Hull, Bainbridge, Porter,--where are they?


s: Health, peace, and many a bloodless year


s: Bravely they fought who failed to win,--


s: Through paths that martyr feet have trod


s: But now the heavens grow black with doubt,


s: "Friends" plot within, foes storm without,


s: "Where is the heart, the hand, the brain


s: Has taught the Nation's friends and foes


s: OUR Poet, who has taught the Western breeze


s: To waft his songs before him o'er the seas,


s: Will find them wheresoe'er his wanderings reach


s: Borne on the spreading tide of English speech


s: Twin with the rhythmic waves that kiss the farthest beach.


s: Where shall the singing bird a stranger be


s: That finds a nest for him in every tree?


s: Where his own voice the echoes do not know,


s: Where his own garden flowers no longer learn to grow?


s: Ah! gentlest soul! how gracious, how benign


s: Breathes through our troubled life that voice of thine,


s: Filled with a sweetness born of happier spheres,


s: That wins and warms, that kindles, softens, cheers,


s: That calms the wildest woe and stays the bitterest tears!


s: Forgive the simple words that sound like praise;


s: The mist before me dims my gilded phrase;


s: Our speech at best is half alive and cold,


s: And save that tenderer moments make us bold


s: Our whitening lips would close, their truest truth untold.


s: The Scorpion's sign, against the Archer's bow,


s: Know well what parting means of friend from friend;


s: After the snows no freshening dews descend,


s: And what the frost has marred, the sunshine will not mend.


s: So we all count the months, the weeks, the days,


s: That keep thee from us in unwonted ways,


s: Grudging to alien hearths our widowed time;


s: And one has shaped a breath in artless rhyme


s: That sighs, "We track thee still through each remotest clime."


s: What wishes, longings, blessings, prayers shall be


s: The more than golden freight that floats with thee!


s: And know, whatever welcome thou shalt find,--


s: Thou who hast won the hearts of half mankind,--


s: The proudest, fondest love thou leavest still behind!


s: THOU who hast taught the teachers of mankind


s: How from the least of things the mightiest grow,


s: What marvel jealous Nature made thee blind,


s: Lest man should learn what angels long to know?


s: Thou in the flinty rock, the river's flow,


s: In the thick-moted sunbeam's sifted light


s: Hast trained thy downward-pointed tube to show


s: Worlds within worlds unveiled to mortal sight,


s: Even as the patient watchers of the night,--


s: The cyclope gleaners of the fruitful skies,--


s: Show the wide misty way where heaven is white


s: All paved with suns that daze our wondering eyes.


s: Far o'er the stormy deep an empire lies,


s: Beyond the storied islands of the blest,


s: That waits to see the lingering day-star rise;


s: Whose queen, fair Freedom, twines her iron crest


s: With leaves from every wreath that mortals wear,


s: That science lends the sage's silvered hair;--


s: Science, who makes life's heritage more fair,


s: Forging for every lock its mastering key,


s: Filling with life and hope the stagnant air,


s: Pouring the light of Heaven o'er land and sea!


s: From her unsceptred realm we come to thee,


s: Bearing our slender tribute in our hands;


s: Deem it not worthless, humble though it be,


s: The smallest fibres weave the strongest bands,--


s: In narrowest tubes the sovereign nerves are spun,--


s: Makes the live thought of severed nations one


s: Thy fame has journeyed westering with the sun,


s: That crowns thy darkened evening with its flame!


s: One with the grateful world, we own thy claim,--


s: Nay, rather claim our right to join the throng


s: Who come with varied tongues, but hearts the same,


s: To hail thy festal morn with smiles and song;


s: From History's record,--not of gilded wrong,


s: But golden truths that, while the world goes by


s: With all its empty pageant, blazoned high


s: So shines thy name illumined in the sky,--


s: Such joys, such triumphs, such remembrance thine!


s: Shed their twinned lustre round his name,


s: What scenes from Wilkie's pencil sprung,


s: FOUR summers coined their golden light in leaves,


s: Four wasteful autumns flung them to the gale,


s: Four winters wore the shroud the tempest weaves,


s: The fourth wan April weeps o'er hill and vale;


s: And still the war-clouds scowl on sea and land,


s: With the red gleams of battle staining through,


s: They open, and the heavens again are blue!


s: Which is the dream, the present or the past?


s: The night of anguish or the joyous morn?


s: The long, long years with horrors overcast,


s: Or the sweet promise of the day new-born?


s: Thy belted first-born in their fast embrace,


s: Murmuring the prayer the patriarch breathed of old,--


s: "Now let me die, for I have seen thy face!"


s: Tell us, O mother,--nay, thou canst not speak,


s: But thy fond eyes shall answer, brimmed with joy,--


s: Press thy mute lips against the sunbrowned cheek,


s: Tell us, O maiden,--ah, what canst thou tell


s: That Nature's record is not first to teach,--


s: With its twin rose-hued pages full of speech?


s: And ye who mourn your dead,--how sternly true


s: The crushing hour that wrenched their lives away,


s: Shadowed with sorrow's midnight veil for you,


s: Dream-like these years of conflict, not a dream!


s: Read by the flaming war-track's lurid gleam


s: No dream, but truth that turns the nations pale.


s: For on the pillar raised by martyr hands


s: Burns the rekindled beacon of the right,


s: Sowing its seeds of fire o'er all the lands,--


s: Thrones look a century older in its light!


s: Rome had her triumphs; round the conqueror's car


s: The ensigns waved, the brazen clarions blew,


s: And o'er the reeking spoils of bandit war


s: With outspread wings the cruel eagles flew;


s: Arms, treasures, captives, kings in clanking chains


s: Urged on by trampling cohorts bronzed and scarred,


s: And wild-eyed wonders snared on Lybian plains,


s: Vain all that praetors clutched, that consuls brought


s: When Rome's returning legions crowned their lord;


s: Less than the least brave deed these hands have wrought,


s: We clasp, unclinching from the bloody sword.


s: Theirs was the mighty work that seers foretold;


s: They know not half their glorious toil has won,


s: For this is Heaven's same battle,-joined of old


s: Twice rings the summons.--Hail and fire and blood!


s: Then the third angel blows his trumpet-peal.


s: Loud wail the dwellers on the myrtled coasts,


s: The green savannas swell the maddened cry,


s: And with a yell from all the demon hosts


s: Falls the great star called Wormwood from the sky!


s: Bitter it mingles with the poisoned flow


s: Of the warm rivers winding to the shore,


s: Thousands must drink the waves of death and woe,


s: But the star Wormwood stains the heavens no more!


s: Peace smiles at last; the Nation calls her sons


s: To sheathe the sword; her battle-flag she furls,


s: Speaks in glad thunders from unspotted guns,


s: No terror shrouded in the smoke-wreath's curls.


s: O ye that fought for Freedom, living, dead,


s: One sacred host of God's anointed Queen,


s: For every holy, drop your veins have shed


s: We breathe a welcome to our bowers of green!


s: Welcome, ye living! from the foeman's gripe


s: Your country's banner it was yours to wrest,--


s: Ah, many a forehead shows the banner-stripe,


s: And stars, once crimson, hallow many a breast.


s: And ye, pale heroes, who from glory's bed


s: Mark when your old battalions form in line,


s: Move in their marching ranks with noiseless tread,


s: And shape unheard the evening countersign,


s: Come with your comrades, the returning brave;


s: Shoulder to shoulder they await you here;


s: These lent the life their martyr-brothers gave,--


s: Read at the meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society,


s: WINTER'S cold drift lies glistening o'er his breast;


s: For him no spring shall bid the leaf unfold


s: What Love could speak, by sudden grief oppressed,


s: What swiftly summoned Memory tell, is told.


s: Even as the bells, in one consenting chime,


s: Filled with their sweet vibrations all the air,


s: So joined all voices, in that mournful time,


s: His genius, wisdom, virtues, to declare.


s: What place is left for words of measured praise,


s: Till calm-eyed History, with her iron pen,


s: Grooves in the unchanging rock the final phrase


s: That shapes his image in the souls of men?


s: Yet while the echoes still repeat his name,


s: While countless tongues his full-orbed life rehearse,


s: Love, by his beating pulses taught, will claim


s: The breath of song, the tuneful throb of verse,--


s: Verse that, in ever-changing ebb and flow,


s: Moves, like the laboring heart, with rush and rest,


s: Or swings in solemn cadence, sad and slow,


s: Like the tired heaving of a grief-worn breast.


s: This was a mind so rounded, so complete,


s: That, like a single stream where many meet,


s: Each separate talent counted something less.


s: Holds o'er the fields an undisputed reign;


s: While the broad summit of the table-land


s: Seems with its belt of clouds a level plain.


s: Servant of all his powers, that faithful slave,


s: Unsleeping Memory, strengthening with his toils,


s: And loaded every day with golden spoils.


s: Order, the law of Heaven, was throned supreme


s: O'er action, instinct, impulse, feeling, thought;


s: Each hour was equal to the charge it brought.


s: Too large his compass for the nicer skill


s: That weighs the world of science grain by grain;


s: All realms of knowledge owned the mastering will


s: That claimed the franchise of its whole domain.


s: Earth, air, sea, sky, the elemental fire,


s: Art, history, song,--what meanings lie in each


s: Found in his cunning hand a stringless lyre,


s: And poured their mingling music through his speech.


s: Thence flowed those anthems of our festal days,


s: The lips of listening throngs in sweet amaze,


s: Moved in all breasts the selfsame human heart.


s: Subdued his accents, as of one who tries


s: To press some care, some haunting sadness down;


s: His smile half shadow; and to stranger eyes


s: He was not armed to wrestle with the storm,


s: To fight for homely truth with vulgar power;


s: Grace looked from every feature, shaped his form,


s: The rose of Academe,--the perfect flower!


s: Such was the stately scholar whom we knew


s: In those ill days of soul-enslaving calm,


s: Before the blast of Northern vengeance blew


s: Her snow-wreathed pine against the Southern palm.


s: Ah, God forgive us! did we hold too cheap


s: The heart we might have known, but would not see,


s: And look to find the nation's friend asleep


s: Through the dread hour of her Gethsemane?


s: That wrong is past; we gave him up to Death


s: With all a hero's honors round his name;


s: As martyrs coin their blood, he coined his breath,


s: And dimmed the scholar's in the patriot's fame.


s: So shall we blazon on the shaft we raise,--


s: Telling our grief, our pride, to unborn years,--


s: "He who had lived the mark of all men's praise


s: Died with the tribute of a Nation's tears."


s: "Who claims our Shakespeare from that realm unknown,


s: Beyond the storm-vexed islands of the deep,


s: Her twofold Saint's-day let our England keep;


s: Shall warring aliens share her holy task?"


s: O land of Shakespeare! ours with all thy past,


s: Till these last years that make the sea so wide;


s: Think not the jar of battle's trumpet-blast


s: Has dulled our aching sense to joyous pride


s: War-wasted, haggard, panting from the strife,


s: We turn to other days and far-off lands,


s: Live o'er in dreams the Poet's faded life,


s: Come with fresh lilies in our fevered hands


s: To wreathe his bust, and scatter purple flowers,--


s: We call those poets who are first to mark


s: Through earth's dull mist the coming of the dawn,--


s: Who see in twilight's gloom the first pale spark,


s: While others only note that day is gone;


s: For him the Lord of light the curtain rent


s: The greatest for its greatness is half known,


s: Stretching beyond our narrow quadrant-lines,--


s: Yet heaven's remotest orb is partly ours,


s: Throbbing its radiance like a beating heart;


s: The instinct of the blindworm has its part;


s: So in God's kingliest creature we behold


s: With no vain praise we mock the stone-carved name


s: Stamped once on dust that moved with pulse and breath,


s: As thinking to enlarge that amplest fame


s: Whose undimmed glories gild the night of death:


s: We praise not star or sun; in these we see


s: Thy gifts are beauty, wisdom, power, and love:


s: We read, we reverence on this human soul,--


s: Earth's clearest mirror of the light above,--


s: Plain as the record on thy prophet's scroll,


s: When o'er his page the effluent splendors poured,


s: Thine own elected. Statesman, poet, sage,


s: For him thy sovereign pleasure passed them by;


s: Sidney's fair youth, and Raleigh's ripened age,


s: Spenser's chaste soul, and his imperial mind


s: Therefore we bid our hearts' Te Deum rise,


s: Nor fear to make thy worship less divine,


s: And hear the shouted choral shake the skies,


s: Counting all glory, power, and wisdom thine;


s: For thy great gift thy greater name adore,


s: In this dread hour of Nature's utmost need,


s: Thanks for these unstained drops of freshening dew!


s: Oh, while our martyrs fall, our heroes bleed,


s: Keep us to every sweet remembrance true,


s: Till from this blood-red sunset springs new-born


s: Read at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society,


s: The old, long tottering, faint and fall;


s: Our friend's, our teacher's task was done,


s: Life's ashes keep their covered fires,--


s: Whose deadlier breath than shot or shell


s: That high-souled youth he loved so well,


s: Breathes softly through my closing strain;


s: ERE yet the warning chimes of midnight sound,


s: Track the swift-shifting seasons in their round


s: Through fivescore circles of the swinging sphere!


s: That cleaves the storm-cloud with its snowy crest,


s: A month-old babe upon his mother's breast.


s: Those little hands that soon shall grow so strong


s: In their rude grasp great thrones shall rock and fall,


s: Press her soft bosom, while a nursery song


s: Holds the world's master in its slender thrall.


s: Look! a new crescent bends its silver bow;


s: A new-lit star has fired the eastern sky;


s: Hark! by the river where the lindens blow


s: A waiting household hears an infant's cry.


s: This, too, a conqueror! His the vast domain,


s: Wider than widest sceptre-shadowed lands;


s: Earth and the weltering kingdom of the main


s: Laid their broad charters in his royal hands.


s: His was no taper lit in cloistered cage,


s: Its glimmer borrowed from the grove or porch;


s: He heard the voices of the pathless woods;


s: On the salt steppes he saw the starlight shine;


s: He scaled the mountain's windy solitudes,


s: And trod the galleries of the breathless mine.


s: For him no fingering of the love-strung lyre,


s: No problem vague, by torturing schoolmen vexed;


s: Nor skulked and scowled behind a Rabbi's text.


s: For God's new truth he claimed the kingly robe


s: That priestly shoulders counted all their own,


s: Unrolled the gospel of the storied globe


s: And led young Science to her empty throne.


s: While the round planet on its axle spins


s: One fruitful year shall boast its double birth,


s: And show the cradles of its mighty twins,


s: Master and Servant of the sons of earth.


s: Which wears the garland that shall never fade,


s: Sweet with fair memories that can never die?


s: Ask not the marbles where their bones are laid,


s: But bow thine ear to hear thy brothers' cry:--


s: "Tear up the despot's laurels by the root,


s: Like mandrakes, shrieking as they quit the soil!


s: Feed us no more upon the blood-red fruit


s: That sucks its crimson from the heart of Toil!


s: "We claim the food that fixed our mortal fate,--


s: Bend to our reach the long-forbidden tree!


s: The angel frowned at Eden's eastern gate,--


s: "Bring the white blossoms of the waning year,


s: Heap with full hands the peaceful conqueror's shrine


s: Whose bloodless triumphs cost no sufferer's tear!


s: Hero of knowledge, be our tribute thine!"


s: Life drops the voiceless myriads from its roll;


s: Sweet with the lingering strains that Echo stole,


s: Has left his dearer self, the music of his soul!


s: And carve with pious care for after eyes


s: He for himself has built a nobler shrine,


s: While o'er their gates the gleaming tablets shine


s: That wear his name inwrought with many a golden line!


s: Green is the wreath their brows so long have worn,--


s: Who, while the Orient burned with new-born flame,


s: These taught the western winds the poet's name;


s: Theirs the first opening buds, the maiden flowers of fame!


s: The rose of June its fragrant life renew


s: And all the tuneful throats of summer swell


s: Of the young muse that haunts each wooded dell,


s: With songs of that "rough land" he loved so long and well!


s: Lifting the rose-leaves on his peaceful mound,


s: So, laden with his song, the breezes blow


s: To the smooth sea beyond the peaks of snow.


s: His soul the air enshrines and leaves but dust below!


s: NOT with the anguish of hearts that are breaking


s: Come we as mourners to weep for our dead;


s: Grief in our breasts has grown weary of aching,


s: Green is the turf where our tears we have shed.


s: While o'er their marbles the mosses are creeping,


s: Give their proud story to Memory's keeping,


s: Hushed are their battle-fields, ended their marches,


s: Deaf are their ears to the drum-beat of morn,--


s: Rise from the sod, ye fair columns and arches


s: Tell their bright deeds to the ages unborn!


s: Emblem and legend may fade from the portal,


s: Keystone may crumble and pillar may fall;


s: They were the builders whose work is immortal,


s: Crowned with the dome that is over us all!


s: Reared by her children's grateful hands!


s: With bud and flower our martyrs' shrine.


s: Firm were their hearts in danger's hour,


s: Sweet was their manhood's morning flower,


s: Their hopes with rainbow hues were bright,--


s: TRUTH, heaven-born TRUTH, their fearless guide,


s: Our love has reared their earthly shrine,


s: HANG out our banners on the stately tower


s: It dawns at last--the long-expected hour I


s: The steep is climbed, the star-lit summit won,


s: The builder's task, the artist's labor done;


s: Before the finished work the herald stands,


s: And asks the verdict of your lips and hands!


s: Ere the last headaches born of New Year's Day;


s: With blasting breath the fierce destroyer came


s: And wrapped the victim in his robes of flame;


s: The pictured sky with redder morning blushed,


s: With scorching streams the naiad's fountain gushed,


s: With kindling mountains glowed the funeral pyre,


s: Forests ablaze and rivers all on fire,--


s: The scenes dissolved, the shrivelling curtain fell,--


s: Art spread her wings and sighed a long farewell!


s: Mourn o'er the Player's melancholy plight,--


s: Falstaff in tears, Othello deadly white,--


s: Poor Romeo reckoning what his doublet cost,


s: And Juliet whimpering for her dresses lost,--


s: Their wardrobes burned, their salaries all undrawn,


s: Their cues cut short, their occupation gone!


s: "Lie there in dust," the red-winged demon cried,


s: "Wreck of the lordly city's hope and pride!"


s: Silent they stand, and stare with vacant gaze,


s: While o'er the embers leaps the fitful blaze;


s: When, to! a hand, before the startled train,


s: Writes in the ashes, "It shall rise again,--


s: The word was spoken, and the walls arose,


s: And ere the seasons round their brief career


s: The new-born temple waits the unborn year.


s: Your smiles, your plaudits, only can repay;


s: We are the monarchs of the painted scenes,


s: You, you alone the real Kings and Queens!


s: Lords of the little kingdom where we meet,


s: We lay our gilded sceptres at your feet,


s: Place in your grasp our portal's silvered keys


s: With one brief utterance: We have tried to please.


s: Tell us, ye sovereigns of the new domain,


s: Are you content-or have we toiled in vain?


s: The realm you rule, for this is haunted ground!


s: Here stalks the Sorcerer, here the Fairy trips,


s: Here limps the Witch with malice-working lips,


s: The Graces here their snowy arms entwine,


s: Here dwell the fairest sisters of the Nine,--


s: She who, with jocund voice and twinkling eye,


s: Laughs at the brood of follies as they fly;


s: Whose charming horrors thrill the trembling soul;


s: She who, a truant from celestial spheres,


s: In mortal semblance now and then appears,


s: Stealing the fairest earthly shape she can--


s: With these the spangled houri of the dance,--


s: What shaft so dangerous as her melting glance,


s: As poised in air she spurns the earth below,


s: And points aloft her heavenly-minded toe!


s: What were our life, with all its rents and seams,


s: Stripped of its purple robes, our waking dreams?


s: The poet's song, the bright romancer's page,


s: The tinselled shows that cheat us on the stage


s: Lead all our fancies captive at their will;


s: Three years or threescore, we are children still.


s: The little listener on his father's knee,


s: With wandering Sindbad ploughs the stormy sea,


s: With Gotham's sages hears the billows roll


s: (Illustrious trio of the venturous bowl,


s: Too early shipwrecked, for they died too soon


s: To see their offspring launch the great balloon);


s: Tracks the dark brigand to his mountain lair,


s: Slays the grim giant, saves the lady fair,


s: Fights all his country's battles o'er again


s: From Bunker's blazing height to Lundy's Lane;


s: Floats with the mighty captains as they sailed,


s: Before whose flag the flaming red-cross paled,


s: And claims the oft-told story of the scars


s: Scarce yet grown white, that saved the stripes and


s: Children of later growth, we love the PLAY,


s: We love its heroes, be they grave or gay,


s: From squeaking, peppery, devil-defying Punch


s: To roaring Richard with his camel-hunch;


s: Adore its heroines, those immortal dames,


s: Time's only rivals, whom he never tames,


s: Whose youth, unchanging, lives while thrones decay


s: The saucy-aproned, razor-tongued soubrette,


s: The blond-haired beauty with the eyes of jet,


s: The gorgeous Beings whom the viewless wires


s: Lift to the skies in strontian-crimsoned fires,


s: And all the wealth of splendor that awaits


s: The throng that enters those Elysian gates.


s: See where the hurrying crowd impatient pours,


s: With noise of trampling feet and flapping doors,


s: Streams to the numbered seat each pasteboard fits


s: And smooths its caudal plumage as it sits;


s: Waits while the slow musicians saunter in,


s: Has done its worst-then hark! the tinkling bell!


s: The crash is o'er--the crinkling curtain furled,


s: And to! the glories of that brighter world!


s: Behold the offspring of the Thespian cart,


s: This full-grown temple of the magic art,


s: Where all the conjurers of illusion meet,


s: And please us all the more, the more they cheat.


s: These are the wizards and the witches too


s: Who win their honest bread by cheating you


s: With cheeks that drown in artificial tears


s: And lying skull-caps white with seventy years,


s: Sweet-tempered matrons changed to scolding Kates,


s: Maids mild as moonbeams crazed with murderous hates,


s: Kind, simple souls that stab and slash and slay


s: And stick at nothing, if it 's in the play!


s: Would all the world told half as harmless lies!


s: Would all its real fools were half as wise


s: As he who blinks through dull Dundreary's eyes I


s: Would all the unhanged bandits of the age


s: Were like the peaceful ruffians of the stage!


s: Would all the cankers wasting town and state,


s: The mob of rascals, little thieves and great,


s: Dealers in watered milk and watered stocks,


s: Who lead us lambs to pasture on the rocks,--


s: Shepherds--Jack Sheppards--of their city flocks,--


s: The rings of rogues that rob the luckless town,


s: The Jacob's ladder of the treasury stairs,--


s: Not stage, but real Turpins and Macaires,--


s: Could doff, like us, their knavery with their clothes,


s: Welcome, thrice welcome to our virgin dome,


s: The Muses' shrine, the Drama's new-found home


s: Here shall the Statesman rest his weary brain,


s: The worn-out Artist find his wits again;


s: Here Trade forget his ledger and his cares,


s: And sweet communion mingle Bulls and Bears;


s: Here shall the youthful Lover, nestling near


s: The shrinking maiden, her he holds most dear,


s: On painted groves, on sliding canvas walls,


s: And sigh, "My angel! What a life of bliss


s: We two could live in such a world as this!"


s: Here shall the timid pedants of the schools,


s: The gilded boors, the labor-scorning fools,


s: The grass-green rustic and the smoke-dried cit,


s: Feel each in turn the stinging lash of wit,


s: Each find a balsam in his neighbor's smart;


s: Farewell! The Players wait the Prompter's call;


s: Friends, lovers, listeners! Welcome one and all!


s: FRIEND, you seem thoughtful. I not wonder much


s: That he who sails the ocean should be sad.


s: Of all this wallowing beast, the Sea, has sucked


s: Between his sharp, thin lips, the wedgy waves,


s: What heaps of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls;


s: What piles of shekels, talents, ducats, crowns,


s: What bales of Tyrian mantles, Indian shawls,


s: Of laces that have blanked the weavers' eyes,


s: Of silken tissues, wrought by worm and man,


s: The half-starved workman, and the well-fed worm;


s: What marbles, bronzes, pictures, parchments, books;


s: What many-lobuled, thought-engendering brains;


s: Lie with the gaping sea-shells in his maw,--


s: I, too, am silent; for all language seems


s: A mockery, and the speech of man is vain.


s: And they rebuke our babbling. "Peace!" they say,--


s: "Mortal, be still!" My noisy tongue is hushed,


s: Ah yes! "Delay,"--it calls, "nor haste to break


s: The charm of stillness with an idle word!"


s: Strides even with my own, nay, flies before.


s: Thou art a brother to the wind and wave;


s: Have they not music for thine ear as mine,


s: When the wild tempest makes thy ship his lyre,


s: Smiting a cavernous basso from the shrouds


s: And climbing up his gamut through the stays,


s: Through buntlines, bowlines, ratlines, till it shrills


s: Ah yes, a vast, a vast and wondrous scene!


s: That holds the sunshine in its azure bowl


s: Tell me, O mariner, dost thou never feel


s: The grandeur of thine office,--to control


s: The keel that cuts the ocean like a knife


s: In the great shining garment of the world?


s: Ay, ay, Sir! Stiddy, Sir! Sou'wes' b' sou'!


s: And strike your lyre,--we sha'n't complain;


s: The brightest blade grows dim with rust,


s: My thoughts were dressed when I was young,


s: How long!--let others count the miles,--


s: DEAR friends, we are strangers; we never before


s: Have suspected what love to each other we bore;


s: But each of us all to his neighbor is dear,


s: Whose heart has a throb for our time-honored pier.


s: As I look on each brother proprietor's face,


s: I could open my arms in a loving embrace;


s: What wonder that feelings, undreamed of so long,


s: Should burst all at once in a blossom of song!


s: While I turn my fond glance on the monarch of piers,


s: Whose throne has stood firm through his eightscore of years,


s: My thought travels backward and reaches the day


s: When they drove the first pile on the edge of the bay.


s: See! The joiner, the shipwright, the smith from his forge,


s: The redcoat, who shoulders his gun for King George,


s: The shopman, the 'prentice, the boys from the lane,


s: The parson, the doctor with gold-headed cane,


s: Come trooping down King Street, where now may be seen


s: The pulleys and ropes of a mighty machine;


s: The weight rises slowly; it drops with a thud;


s: And, to! the great timber sinks deep in the mud!


s: They are gone, the stout craftsmen that hammered the piles,


s: And the square-toed old boys in the three-cornered tiles;


s: The breeches, the buckles, have faded from view,


s: And the parson's white wig and the ribbon-tied queue.


s: The redcoats have vanished; the last grenadier


s: Stepped into the boat from the end of our pier;


s: They found that our hills were not easy to climb,


s: And the order came, "Countermarch, double-quick time!"


s: They are gone, friend and foe,--anchored fast at the pier,


s: Whence no vessel brings back its pale passengers here;


s: But our wharf, like a lily, still floats on the flood,


s: Its breast in the sunshine, its roots in the mud.


s: Who--who that has loved it so long and so well--


s: The flower of his birthright would barter or sell?


s: No: pride of the bay, while its ripples shall run,


s: You shall pass, as an heirloom, from father to son!


s: Let me part with the acres my grandfather bought,


s: With the bonds that my uncle's kind legacy brought,


s: With my bank-shares,--old "Union," whose ten per cent stock


s: Stands stiff through the storms as the Eddystone rock;


s: With my rights (or my wrongs) in the "Erie,"--alas!


s: With my claims on the mournful and "Mutual Mass.;"


s: With my "Phil. Wil. and Balt.," with my "C. B. and Q.;"


s: But I never, no never, will sell out of you.


s: We drink to thy past and thy future to-day,


s: Strong right arm of Boston, stretched out o'er the bay.


s: May the winds waft the wealth of all nations to thee,


s: And thy dividends flow like the waves of the sea!


s: "Great sire," the trembling chef replied,


s: "Great sire," and so forth, thus he spoke,


s: "Slave, thou hast spoken well," he said,


s: "Thanks! thanks!" the grateful chef replied,