Poems of Nature (Whittier)
For works with similar titles, see Poems of Nature.
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POEMS OF NATURE
BY
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
Illustrated from Nature
BY
ELBRIDGE KINGSLEY
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BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1886
Copyright, 1850, 1856, 1860, 1863, 1867, 1872, 1874, 1878, 1883, and 1884,
By JOHN G. WHITTIER.
Copyright, 1885,
By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
All rights reserved.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge:
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company.
CONTENTS.
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| MOUNTAIN PICTURES. | ||
| I. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| PORTRAIT OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. Etched by S. A. Schoff. | Frontispiece. | |
| PAGE | ||
| I. | THE GATEWAY TO THE WHITE MOUNTAINS | 1 |
And northward, leaving at my backThe warm vale of the Merrimac,go to meet the winds of morn,Blown down the bill-gaps, mountain-born,Breathe scent of pines, and satisfyThe hunger of a lowland eye.A Summer Pilgrimage.
The view is taken from Conway meadows, overlooking the intervales of Saco valley, with Mount Washington in the distance.
| II. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
9 |
Beneath the low-bung night cloudThat raked her splintering mast,The good ship settled slowly,The cruel leak gained fast.******And ship to ship made signals,Man answered back to man,While oft, to cheer and bearten,The Three Bells nearer ran.The Three Bells.
| III. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
13 |
The river hemmed with leaning treesWound through its meadows green;A low, blue line of mountains showedThe open pines between.One sharp, tall peak above them all
Clear into sunlight sprang:I saw the river of my dreams,The mountains that I sang!A Mystery.
Chocorua, one of the most picturesque and individual of the White Mountain range, rises above the meadows through which the Bearcamp flows. Mr. Whittier's summer home was for many years near the foot of this mountain.
| IV. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
17 |
And over all the still unbidden sun,Weaving its light through slant-blown veils of rain,Smiled on the trouble, as hope smiles on pain;And, when the tumult and the strife were done, With one foot on the lake and one on land,Framing within his crescent's tinted streakA far-off picture of the Melvin peak,Spent, broken clouds the rainbow's angel spanned.Storm on Lake Asquam.
Asquam Lakes are at the southern foot of the White Mountain region, northwest of Lake Winnipiseogee. This view is taken from a hill on the western margin of the lake, showing Mount Chocorua and Red Hill in the distance.
| V. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
21 |
Yon mountain's side is black with night,While, broad-orbed, o'er its gleaming crownThe moon, slow rounding into sight,On the bushed inland sea looks down.
How start to light the clustering isles,Each silver-hemmed! How sharply showThe shadows of their rocky piles,And tree-tops on the wave below!Summer by the Lakeside.
The lake referred to in the poem and represented in the design is Lake Winnipiseogee.
| VI. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
31 |
Here, while the loom of Winter weavesThe shroud of flowers and fountains,I think of thee, and summer evesAmong the Northern mountains.A Memory.
| VII. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
35 |
Down swooped the wreckers, like birds of prey,Tearing the beart of the ship away,And the dead bad never a word to say.
And then, with ghastly shimmer and shine,Over the rocks and the seething brine,They burned the wreck of the Palatine.The Palatine.
| VIII. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
41 |
For still, on many a moonless night,From Kingston Head and from Montauk LightThe spectre kindles and burns in sight.Now low and dim, now clear and higher,
Leaps up the terrible Ghost of Fire,-Then, slowly sinking, the flames expire.The Palatine.
Thus may appear a distant fire at sea, seen through illusory mists.
| IX. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
43 |
Once more, O Mountains of the North, unveilYour brows, and lay your cloudy mantles by!And once more, ere the eyes that seek ye fail,Uplift against the blue walls of the skyYour mighty shapes, and let the sunshine weaveIts golden network in your belting woods,Smile down in rainbows from your falling floods,And on your kingly brows at morn and eveSet crowns of fire!Mountain Pictures: Franconia from the Pemigewasset.
A characteristic glen of the New England highlands, with a mountain brook rushing through rocky ravines to the valley below.
| X. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
51 |
The waves are glad in breeze and sun;The rocks are fringed with foam;I walk once more a haunted shore,A stranger, yet at home,—A land of dreams I roam.
Is this the wind, the soft sea-wind,That stirred thy locks of brown?Are these the rocks whose mosses knewThe trail of thy light gown,Where boy and girl sat down?A Sea Dream.
| XI. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
61 |
Along the sky, in wavy lines,O'er isle and reach and bay,Green-belled with eternal pines,The mountains stretch away.Below, the maple masses sleepWhere shore with water blends,While midway on the tranquil deepThe evening light descends.The Lakeside.
| XII. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
65 |
The Hawkswood oaks, the storm-torn plumesOf old pine-forest kings,Beneath whose century-woven shadeDeer Island's mistress sings.June on the Merrimac
In the Merrimac River, a short distance above its junction with the sea, lies Deer Island, its shores fringed with pines. The mistress of Deer Island is Mrs. Harriet Prescott Spofford.
| XIII. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
73 |
And if, unknown to us, sweet daysOf June like this must come,Unseen of us, these laurels clotheThe river-banks with bloom;
And these green paths must soon be trodBy other feet than ours,Full long may annual pilgrims comeTo keep the Feast of Flowers.June on the Merrimac.
Deer Island, with its bridge to the main-land, is seen in the distance. Laurel Hill is the scene of a yearly gathering during the time of laurel.
| XIV. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
77 |
O'er the bare woods, whose outstretched handsPlead with the leaden heavens in vain,I see, beyond the valley landsThe sea's long level dim will rain.Around me all things, stark and dumb,Seem praying for the snows to come,And for the summer bloom and greenness goneWith winter's sunset lights and dazzling morn atone.The Last Walk in Autumn.
| XV. | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
95 |
The dreariest spot in all the landTo Death they set apart;With scanty grace from Nature's band,And none from that of Art.
A winding wall of mossy stone,Frost-flung and broken, linesA lonesome acre thinly grownWith grass and wandering vines.The Old Burying-Ground.
A view taken from the burial ground of Old Hadley, in the valley of the Connecticut.
This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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