Footnotes

[655:1] See Haliburton, page [580].

WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. 1817- ——.

I laugh, for hope hath happy place with me;

If my bark sinks, 't is to another sea.

A Poet's Hope.

I sing New England, as she lights her fire

In every Prairie's midst; and where the bright

Enchanting stars shine pure through Southern night,

She still is there, the guardian on the tower,

To open for the world a purer hour.

New England.

Most joyful let the Poet be;

It is through him that all men see.

The Poet of the Old and New Times.

[[656]]

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 1819-1891.

Earth's noblest thing,—a woman perfected.

Irené.

Be noble! and the nobleness that lies

In other men, sleeping but never dead,

Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.

Sonnet iv.

Great truths are portions of the soul of man;

Great souls are portions of eternity.

Sonnet vi.

To win the secret of a weed's plain heart.

Sonnet xxv.

Two meanings have our lightest fantasies,—

One of the flesh, and of the spirit one.

Sonnet xxxiv. (Ed. 1844.)

All thoughts that mould the age begin

Deep down within the primitive soul.

An Incident in a Railroad Car.

It may be glorious to write

Thoughts that shall glad the two or three

High souls, like those far stars that come in sight

Once in a century.

An Incident in a Railroad Car.

No man is born into the world whose work

Is not born with him. There is always work,

And tools to work withal, for those who will;

And blessed are the horny hands of toil.

A Glance behind the Curtain.

They are slaves who fear to speak

For the fallen and the weak.

. . . .

They are slaves who dare not be

In the right with two or three.

Stanzas on Freedom.

Endurance is the crowning quality,

And patience all the passion of great hearts.

Columbus.

One day with life and heart

Is more than time enough to find a world.

Columbus.

[[657]]

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;

Some great cause, God's new Messiah offering each the bloom or blight,

Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right;

And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.

The Present Crisis.

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.

The Present Crisis.

Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,

Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 't is prosperous to be just;

Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,

Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified.

The Present Crisis.

Before man made us citizens, great Nature made us men.

On the Capture of Fugitive Slaves near Washington.

Dear common flower, that grow'st beside the way,

Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold.

To the Dandelion.

This child is not mine as the first was;

I cannot sing it to rest;

I cannot lift it up fatherly,

And bless it upon my breast.

Yet it lies in my little one's cradle,

And sits in my little one's chair,

And the light of the heaven she 's gone to

Transfigures its golden hair.

The Changeling.

The thing we long for, that we are

For one transcendent moment.

Longing.

[[658]]

She doeth little kindnesses

Which most leave undone, or despise.

My Love. iv.

Not only around our infancy

Doth heaven with all its splendors lie;

Daily, with souls that cringe and plot,

We Sinais climb and know it not.

The Vision of Sir Launfal. Prelude to Part First.

'T is heaven alone that is given away;

'T is only God may be had for the asking.

The Vision of Sir Launfal. Prelude to Part First.

And what is so rare as a day in June?

Then, if ever, come perfect days;

Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,

And over it softly her warm ear lays.

The Vision of Sir Launfal. Prelude to Part First.

Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it;

We are happy now because God wills it.

The Vision of Sir Launfal. Prelude to Part First.

Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how.

The Vision of Sir Launfal. Prelude to Part First.

Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,—

Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.

The Vision of Sir Launfal. Part Second. viii.

There comes Emerson first, whose rich words, every one,

Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on.

A Fable for Critics.

Nature fits all her children with something to do.

A Fable for Critics.

Ez fer war, I call it murder,—

There you hev it plain an' flat;

I don't want to go no furder

Than my Testyment fer that.

. . . . .

An' you 've gut to git up airly

Ef you want to take in God.

The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. i.

Laborin' man an' laborin' woman

Hev one glory an' one shame;

Ev'y thin' thet 's done inhuman

Injers all on 'em the same.

The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. i.

[[659]]

This goin' ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur.[659:1]

The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. ii.

Gineral C. is a dreffle smart man;

He 's ben on all sides thet give places or pelf;

But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,—

He 's ben true to one party, an' thet is himself.

The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. ii.

We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage.

The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. iii.

But John P.

Robinson, he

Sez they did n't know everythin' down in Judee.

The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. iii.

I don't believe in princerple,

But oh I du in interest.

The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. vi.

Of my merit

On thet pint you yourself may jedge;

All is, I never drink no sperit,

Nor I haint never signed no pledge.

The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. vii.

Ez to my princerples, I glory

In hevin' nothin' o' the sort.

The Biglow Papers. First Series. No. vii.

Zekle crep' up quite unbeknown

An' peeked in thru' the winder,

An' there sot Huldy all alone,

'Ith no one nigh to hender.