Personal Poems, Complete / Volume IV of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
The parted spirit, Knoweth it not our sorrow? Answereth not Its blessing to our tears? The circle is broken, one seat is forsaken, One bud from the tree of our friendship is shaken; One heart from among us no longer shall thrill With joy in our gladness, or grief in our ill. Weep! lonely and lowly are slumbering now The light of her glances, the pride of her brow; Weep! sadly and long shall we listen in vain To hear the soft tones of her welcome again. Give our tears to the dead! For humanity's claim From its silence and darkness is ever the same; The hope of that world whose existence is bliss May not stifle the tears of the mourners of this. For, oh! if one glance the freed spirit can throw On the scene of its troubled probation below, Than the pride of the marble, the pomp of the dead, To that glance will be dearer the tears which we shed. Oh, who can forget the mild light of her smile, Over lips moved with music and feeling the while, The eye's deep enchantment, dark, dream-like, and clear, In the glow of its gladness, the shade of its tear. And the charm of her features, while over the whole Played the hues of the heart and the sunshine of soul; And the tones of her voice, like the music which seems Murmured low in our ears by the Angel of dreams! But holier and dearer our memories hold Those treasures of feeling, more precious than gold, The love and the kindness and pity which gave Fresh flowers for the bridal, green wreaths for the grave! The heart ever open to Charity's claim, Unmoved from its purpose by censure and blame, While vainly alike on her eye and her ear Fell the scorn of the heartless, the jesting and jeer. How true to our hearts was that beautiful sleeper With smiles for the joyful, with tears for the weeper, Yet, evermore prompt, whether mournful or gay, With warnings in love to the passing astray. For, though spotless herself, she could sorrow for them Who sullied with evil the spirit's pure gem; And a sigh or a tear could the erring reprove, And the sting of reproof was still tempered by love. As a cloud of the sunset, slow melting in heaven, As a star that is lost when the daylight is given, As a glad dream of slumber, which wakens in bliss, She hath passed to the world of the holy from this. 1834.
John Greenleaf Whittier
THE WORKS OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, Volume IV. (of VII)
PERSONAL POEMS
A LAMENT
TO THE MEMORY OF CHARLES B. STORRS,
LINES ON THE DEATH OF S. OLIVER TORREY,
SECRETARY OF THE BOSTON YOUNG MEN'S ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
TO ———,
WITH A COPY OF WOOLMAN'S JOURNAL.
LEGGETT'S MONUMENT.
TO A FRIEND, ON HER RETURN FROM EUROPE.
LUCY HOOPER.
FOLLEN. ON READING HIS ESSAY ON THE "FUTURE STATE."
TO J. P.
John Pierpont, the eloquent preacher and poet of Boston.
CHALKLEY HALL.
GONE
TO RONGE.
CHANNING.
TO MY FRIEND ON THE DEATH OF HIS SISTER.
DANIEL WHEELER
TO FREDRIKA BREMER.
TO AVIS KEENE ON RECEIVING A BASKET OF SEA-MOSSES.
THE HILL-TOP
ICHABOD
THE LOST OCCASION.
WORDSWORTH, WRITTEN ON A BLANK LEAF OF HIS MEMOIRS.
TO ———, LINES WRITTEN AFTER A SUMMER DAY'S EXCURSION.
BENEDICITE.
KOSSUTH
TO MY OLD SCHOOLMASTER.
AN EPISTLE NOT AFTER THE MANNER OF HORACE
THE HERO.
RANTOUL.
WILLIAM FORSTER.
TO CHARLES SUMNER.
BURNS, ON RECEIVING A SPRIG OF HEATHER IN BLOSSOM.
TO GEORGE B. CHEEVER
TO JAMES T. FIELDS
ON A BLANK LEAF OF "POEMS PRINTED, NOT PUBLISHED."
THE MEMORY OF BURNS.
IN REMEMBRANCE OF JOSEPH STURGE.
BROWN OF OSSAWATOMIE
NAPLES
INSCRIBED TO ROBERT C. WATERSTON, OF BOSTON.
A MEMORIAL
BRYANT ON HIS BIRTHDAY
THOMAS STARR KING
LINES ON A FLY-LEAF.
GEORGE L. STEARNS
GARIBALDI
TO LYDIA MARIA CHILD,
ON READING HER POEM IN "THE STANDARD."
THE SINGER.
HOW MARY GREW.
SUMNER
THEIRS
FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. AT THE UNVEILING OF HIS STATUE.
WILLIAM FRANCIS BARTLETT.
BAYARD TAYLOR.
WITHIN THE GATE. L. M. C.
IN MEMORY. JAMES T. FIELDS.
WILSON
THE POET AND THE CHILDREN. LONGFELLOW.
A WELCOME TO LOWELL
AN ARTIST OF THE BEAUTIFUL. GEORGE FULLER
MULFORD.
Author of The Nation and The Republic of God.
TO A CAPE ANN SCHOONER
SAMUEL J. TILDEN.
GREYSTONE, AUG. 4, 1886.
OCCASIONAL POEMS
EVA
A LAY OF OLD TIME.
A SONG OF HARVEST
KENOZA LAKE.
FOR AN AUTUMN FESTIVAL
THE QUAKER ALUMNI.
OUR RIVER.
FOR A SUMMER FESTIVAL AT "THE LAURELS" ON THE MERRIMAC.
REVISITED.
Read at "The Laurels," on the Merrimac, 6th month, 1865.
"THE LAURELS"
At the twentieth and last anniversary.
JUNE ON THE MERRIMAC.
HYMN
FOR THE OPENING OF THOMAS STARR KING'S HOUSE OF WORSHIP, 1864.
HYMN
A SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATION.
Read at the President's Levee, Brown University, 29th 6th month, 1870.
CHICAGO
The great fire at Chicago was on 8-10 October, 1871.
KINSMAN.
Died at the Island of Panay (Philippine group), aged nineteen years.
THE GOLDEN WEDDING OF LONGWOOD.
HYMN FOR THE OPENING OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH, ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA.
LEXINGTON 1775.
THE LIBRARY.
Sung at the opening of the Haverhill Library, November 11, 1875.
"I WAS A STRANGER, AND YE TOOK ME IN."
An incident in St. Augustine, Florida.
CENTENNIAL HYMN.
AT SCHOOL-CLOSE. BOWDOIN STREET, BOSTON, 1877.
HYMN OF THE CHILDREN.
Sung at the anniversary of the Children's Mission, Boston, 1878.
THE LANDMARKS.
GARDEN
The American Horticultural Society, 1882.
A GREETING
GODSPEED
WINTER ROSES.
In reply to a flower gift from Mrs. Putnam's school at Jamaica Plain.
THE REUNION
NORUMBEGA HALL.
THE BARTHOLDI STATUE 1886
ONE OF THE SIGNERS.
THE TENT ON THE BEACH
THE WRECK OF RIVERMOUTH
THE GRAVE BY THE LAKE
THE BROTHER OF MERCY.
THE CHANGELING.
THE MAIDS OF ATTITASH.
KALLUNDBORG CHURCH
THE CABLE HYMN.
THE DEAD SHIP OF HARPSWELL.
THE PALATINE.
ABRAHAM DAVENPORT
THE WORSHIP OF NATURE.
AT SUNDOWN
TO E. C. S.
THE CHRISTMAS OF 1888.
THE VOW OF WASHINGTON.
THE CAPTAIN'S WELL.
AN OUTDOOR RECEPTION.
R. S. S., AT DEER ISLAND ON THE MERRIMAC.
BURNING DRIFT-WOOD
O. W. HOLMES ON HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTH-DAY.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
HAVERHILL. 1640-1890.
TO G. G. AN AUTOGRAPH.
INSCRIPTION
LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY.
Inscription on her Memorial Tablet in Christ Church at Hartford, Conn.
MILTON
THE BIRTHDAY WREATH
December 17, 1891.
THE WIND OF MARCH.
BETWEEN THE GATES.
THE LAST EVE OF SUMMER.
TO OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
8TH Mo. 29TH, 1892.