Poems of Nature, part 3, Reminiscent Poems

Project Gutenberg EBook, Reminiscent Poems by John Greenleaf
Whittier Volume II., The Works of Whittier: Poems of Nature, Poems
Subjective and Reminiscent, Religious Poems
#15 in our series by
John Greenleaf Whittier
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Title: Reminiscent Poems , From Poems of Nature,
Poems Subjective and Reminiscent and Religious Poems Volume II.,
The Works of Whittier
Author: John Greenleaf Whittier
Release Date: Dec, 2005 [EBook #9570]
[Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on October 2,
2003]
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Language: English
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK,
REMINISCENT POEMS ***
This eBook was produced by David Widger [[email protected]
]
POEMS OF NATURE
POEMS SUBJECTIVE AND REMINISCENT
RELIGIOUS POEMS
B Y
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
CONTENTS:
POEMS SUBJECTIVE AND REMINISCENT:
MEMORIES
RAPHAEL
EGO
THE PUMPKIN

FORGIVENESS
TO MY SISTER
MY THANKS

REMEMBRANCE
MY NAMESAKE
A MEMORY
MY
DREAM
THE BAREFOOT BOY
MY PSALM
THE
WAITING
POEMS SUBJECTIVE AND REMINISCENT MEMORIES
A beautiful and happy girl,
With step as light as summer air,
Eyes
glad with smiles, and brow of pearl,
Shadowed by many a careless
curl
Of unconfined and flowing hair;
A seeming child in everything,

Save thoughtful brow and ripening charms,
As Nature wears the
smile of Spring
When sinking into Summer's arms.
A mind rejoicing in the light
Which melted through its graceful
bower,
Leaf after leaf, dew-moist and bright,
And stainless in its
holy white,
Unfolding like a morning flower
A heart, which, like a

fine-toned lute,
With every breath of feeling woke,
And, even when
the tongue was mute,
From eye and lip in music spoke.
How thrills once more the lengthening chain
Of memory, at the
thought of thee!
Old hopes which long in dust have lain
Old dreams,
come thronging back again,
And boyhood lives again in me;
I feel
its glow upon my cheek,
Its fulness of the heart is mine,
As when I
leaned to hear thee speak,
Or raised my doubtful eye to thine.
I hear again thy low replies,
I feel thy arm within my own,
And
timidly again uprise
The fringed lids of hazel eyes,
With soft brown
tresses overblown.
Ah! memories of sweet summer eves,
Of
moonlit wave and willowy way,
Of stars and flowers, and dewy
leaves,
And smiles and tones more dear than they!
Ere this, thy quiet eye hath smiled
My picture of thy youth to see,

When, half a woman, half a child,
Thy very artlessness beguiled,

And folly's self seemed wise in thee;
I too can smile, when o'er that
hour
The lights of memory backward stream,
Yet feel the while that
manhood's power
Is vainer than my boyhood's dream.
Years have passed on, and left their trace,
Of graver care and deeper
thought;
And unto me the calm, cold face
Of manhood, and to thee
the grace
Of woman's pensive beauty brought.
More wide,
perchance, for blame than praise,
The school-boy's humble name has
flown;
Thine, in the green and quiet ways
Of unobtrusive goodness
known.
And wider yet in thought and deed
Diverge our pathways, one in
youth;
Thine the Genevan's sternest creed,
While answers to my
spirit's need

The Derby dalesman's simple truth.
For thee, the
priestly rite and prayer,
And holy day, and solemn psalm;
For me,
the silent reverence where
My brethren gather, slow and calm.

Yet hath thy spirit left on me
An impress Time has worn not out,

And something of myself in thee,
A shadow from the past, I see,

Lingering, even yet, thy way about;
Not wholly can the heart unlearn

That lesson of its better hours,
Not yet has Time's dull footstep
worn
To common dust that path of flowers.
Thus, while at times before our eyes
The shadows melt, and fall apart,

And, smiling through them, round us lies
The warm light of our
morning skies,--
The Indian Summer of the heart!
In secret
sympathies of mind,
In founts of feeling which retain
Their pure,
fresh flow, we yet may find
Our early dreams not wholly vain
1841.
RAPHAEL.
Suggested by the portrait of Raphael, at the age of fifteen.
I shall