Personal Poems II, vol 4, part 2

Project Gutenberg EBook, Personal Poems II, by Whittier,
Part 2,
From Volume IV., The Works of Whittier: Personal Poems #27 in our
series by John Greenleaf Whittier
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Title: Personal Poems II
Part 2, From Volume IV., The Works of Whittier: Personal Poems
Author: John Greenleaf Whittier
Release Date: December 2005 [EBook #9582]
[Yes, we are more
than one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on
October 18, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PERSONAL
POEMS, PART 2 ***
This eBook was produced by David Widger [[email protected]
]
PERSONAL POEMS
BY
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
CONTENTS:
THE CROSS
THE HERO
RANTOUL
WILLIAM FORSTER

TO CHARLES SUMNER
BURNS
TO GEORGE B.
CHEEVER
TO JAMES T. FIELDS
THE MEMORY OF
BURNS
IN REMEMBRANCE OF JOSEPH STURGER

BROWN OF OSSAWATOMIE
NAPLES
A MEMORIAL

BRYANT ON HIS BIRTHDAY
THOMAS STARR KING

LINES ON A FLY-LEAF
GEORGE L. STEARNS

GARIBALDI
TO LYDIA MARIA CHILD
THE SINGER

HOW MARY GREW
SUMNER
THIERS
FITZ-GREENE
HALLECK
WILLIAM FRANCIS BARTLETT
BAYARD
TAYLOR
OUR AUTOCRAT
WITHIN THE GATE
IN
MEMORY: JAMES T. FIELDS
WILSON
THE POET AND
THE CHILDREN
A WELCOME TO LOWELL
AN ARTIST
OF THE BEAUTIFUL
MULFORD
TO A CAPE ANN
SCHOONER
SAMUEL J. TILDEN
THE CROSS.
Richard Dillingham, a young member of the Society of Friends, died in
the Nashville penitentiary, where he was confined for the act of aiding
the escape of fugitive slaves.

"The cross, if rightly borne, shall be
No burden, but support to thee;"

So, moved of old time for our sake,
The holy monk of Kempen
spake.
Thou brave and true one! upon whom
Was laid the cross of
martyrdom,
How didst thou, in thy generous youth,
Bear witness to
this blessed truth!
Thy cross of suffering and of shame
A staff within thy hands became,

In paths where faith alone could see
The Master's steps supporting
thee.
Thine was the seed-time; God alone
Beholds the end of what is sown;

Beyond our vision, weak and dim,
The harvest-time is hid with
Him.
Yet, unforgotten where it lies,
That seed of generous sacrifice,

Though seeming on the desert cast,
Shall rise with bloom and fruit at
last.
1852.
THE HERO.
The hero of the incident related in this poem was Dr. Samuel Gridley
Howe, the well-known philanthropist, who when a young man
volunteered his aid in the Greek struggle for independence.
"Oh for a knight like Bayard,
Without reproach or fear;
My light
glove on his casque of steel,
My love-knot on his spear!
"Oh for the white plume floating
Sad Zutphen's field above,--
The
lion heart in battle,
The woman's heart in love!
"Oh that man once more were manly,
Woman's pride, and not her
scorn:
That once more the pale young mother
Dared to boast `a man
is born'!

"But, now life's slumberous current
No sun-bowed cascade wakes;

No tall, heroic manhood
The level dulness breaks.
"Oh for a knight like Bayard,
Without reproach or fear!
My light
glove on his casque of steel,
My love-knot on his spear!"
Then I said, my own heart throbbing
To the time her proud pulse beat,

"Life hath its regal natures yet,
True, tender, brave, and sweet!
"Smile not, fair unbeliever!
One man, at least, I know,
Who might
wear the crest of Bayard
Or Sidney's plume of snow.
"Once, when over purple mountains
Died away the Grecian sun,

And the far Cyllenian ranges
Paled and darkened, one by one,--
"Fell the Turk, a bolt of thunder,
Cleaving all the quiet sky,
And
against his sharp steel lightnings
Stood the Suliote but to die.
"Woe for the weak and halting!
The crescent blazed behind
A
curving line of sabres,
Like fire before the wind!
"Last to fly, and first to rally,
Rode he of whom I speak,
When,
groaning in his bridle-path,
Sank down a wounded Greek.
"With the rich Albanian costume
Wet with many a ghastly stain,

Gazing on earth and sky as one
Who might not gaze again.
"He looked forward to the mountains,
Back on foes that never spare,

Then flung him from his saddle,
And placed the stranger there.
"'Allah! hu!' Through flashing sabres,
Through a stormy hail of lead,

The good Thessalian charger
Up the slopes of olives sped.
"Hot spurred the turbaned riders;
He almost felt their breath,
Where
a mountain stream rolled darkly down
Between the hills and death.

"One brave and manful struggle,--
He gained the solid land,
And
the cover of the mountains,
And the carbines of his band!"
"It was very great and noble,"
Said the moist-eyed