John Greenleaf Whittier Poems on Liberty & Freedom (99 Poems)

The Pennsylvania (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)

PreludeI sing the Pilgrim of a softer climeAnd milder speech than those brave men’s who broughtTo the ice and iron of our winter timeA will as firm, a creed as stern, and wroughtWith one mailed hand, and with the other … Continue reading →

Aechdeacon Barbour (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)

THROUGH the long hall the shuttered windows shedA dubious light on every upturned head;On locks like those of Absalom the fair,On the bald apex ringed with scanty hair,On blank indifference and on curious stare;On the pale Showman reading from his … Continue reading →

Among the Hills (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)

PRELUDEALONG the roadside, like the flowers of goldThat tawny Incas for their gardens wrought,Heavy with sunshine droops the golden-rod,And the red pennons of the cardinal-flowersHang motionless upon their upright staves.The sky is hot and hazy, and the wind,Vying-weary with its … Continue reading →

Mogg Megone – Part II. (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)

‘Tis morning over Norridgewock, —On tree and wigwam, wave and rock.Bathed in the autumnal sunshine, stirredAt intervals by breeze and bird,And wearing all the hues which glowIn heaven’s own pure and perfect bow,That glorious picture of the air,Which summer’s light-robed … Continue reading →

Mogg Megone – Part I. (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)

Who stands on that cliff, like a figure of stone,Unmoving and tall in the light of the sky,Where the spray of the cataract sparkles on high,Lonely and sternly, save Mogg Megone?Close to the verge of the rock is he,While beneath … Continue reading →

The Grave By The Lake (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)

Where the Great Lake’s sunny smilesDimple round its hundred isles,And the mountain’s granite ledgeCleaves the water like a wedge,Ringed about with smooth, gray stones,Rest the giant’s mighty bones. Close beside, in shade and gleam,Laughs and ripples Melvin stream;Melvin water, mountain-born,All … Continue reading →

The Quaker Alumni (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)

From the well-springs of Hudson, the sea-cliffs of Maine,Grave men, sober matrons, you gather again;And, with hearts warmer grown as your heads grow more cool,Play over the old game of going to school. All your strifes and vexations, your whims … Continue reading →

The World’s Convention Of The Friends Of Emancipation, Held In London In 1840 (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)

YES, let them gather! Summon forthThe pledged philanthropy of Earth.From every land, whose hills have heardThe bugle blast of Freedom waking;Or shrieking of her symbol-birdFrom out his cloudy eyrie breaking:Where Justice hath one worshipper,Or truth one altar built to her;Where’er … Continue reading →

Sumner (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)

O Mother State! the winds of MarchBlew chill o’er Auburn’s Field of God,Where, slow, beneath a leaden archOf sky, thy mourning children trod. And now, with all thy woods in leaf,Thy fields in flower, beside thy deadThou sittest, in thy … Continue reading →

The Human Sacrifice (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)

I.FAR from his close and noisome cell,By grassy lane and sunny stream,Blown clover field and strawberry dell,And green and meadow freshness, fellThe footsteps of his dream.Again from careless feet the dewOf summer’s misty morn he shook;Again with merry heart he … Continue reading →