POEMS OF NATURE

POEMS SUBJECTIVE AND REMINISCENT

RELIGIOUS POEMS

BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

CONTENTS:

MOUNTAIN PICTURES I. FRANCONIA FROM THE PEMIGEWASSET II. MONADNOCK FROM WACHUSET THE VANISHERS THE PAGEANT THE PRESSED GENTIAN A MYSTERY A SEA DREAM HAZEL BLOSSOMS SUNSET ON THE BEARCAMP THE SEEKING OF THE WATERFALL THE TRAILING ARBUTUS ST. MARTINS SUMMER STORM ON LAKE ASQUAM A SUMMER PILGRIMAGE SWEET FERN THE WOOD GIANT A DAY

MOUNTAIN PICTURES.

I. FRANCONIA FROM THE PEMIGEWASSET Once more, O Mountains of the North, unveil Your brows, and lay your cloudy mantles by And once more, ere the eyes that seek ye fail, Uplift against the blue walls of the sky Your mighty shapes, and let the sunshine weave Its golden net-work in your belting woods, Smile down in rainbows from your falling floods, And on your kingly brows at morn and eve Set crowns of fire! So shall my soul receive Haply the secret of your calm and strength, Your unforgotten beauty interfuse My common life, your glorious shapes and hues And sun-dropped splendors at my bidding come, Loom vast through dreams, and stretch in billowy length From the sea-level of my lowland home!

They rise before me! Last night's thunder-gust Roared not in vain: for where its lightnings thrust Their tongues of fire, the great peaks seem so near, Burned clean of mist, so starkly bold and clear, I almost pause the wind in the pines to hear, The loose rock's fall, the steps of browsing deer. The clouds that shattered on yon slide-worn walls And splintered on the rocks their spears of rain Have set in play a thousand waterfalls, Making the dusk and silence of the woods Glad with the laughter of the chasing floods, And luminous with blown spray and silver gleams, While, in the vales below, the dry-lipped streams Sing to the freshened meadow-lands again. So, let me hope, the battle-storm that beats The land with hail and fire may pass away With its spent thunders at the break of day, Like last night's clouds, and leave, as it retreats, A greener earth and fairer sky behind, Blown crystal-clear by Freedom's Northern wind!

II. MONADNOCK FROM WACHUSET. I would I were a painter, for the sake Of a sweet picture, and of her who led, A fitting guide, with reverential tread, Into that mountain mystery. First a lake Tinted with sunset; next the wavy lines Of far receding hills; and yet more far, Monadnock lifting from his night of pines His rosy forehead to the evening star. Beside us, purple-zoned, Wachuset laid His head against the West, whose warm light made His aureole; and o'er him, sharp and clear, Like a shaft of lightning in mid-launching stayed, A single level cloud-line, shone upon By the fierce glances of the sunken sun, Menaced the darkness with its golden spear!

So twilight deepened round us. Still and black The great woods climbed the mountain at our back; And on their skirts, where yet the lingering day On the shorn greenness of the clearing lay, The brown old farm-house like a bird's-nest hung. With home-life sounds the desert air was stirred The bleat of sheep along the hill we heard, The bucket plashing in the cool, sweet well, The pasture-bars that clattered as they fell; Dogs barked, fowls fluttered, cattle lowed; the gate Of the barn-yard creaked beneath the merry weight Of sun-brown children, listening, while they swung, The welcome sound of supper-call to hear; And down the shadowy lane, in tinklings clear, The pastoral curfew of the cow-bell rung. Thus soothed and pleased, our backward path we took, Praising the farmer's home. He only spake, Looking into the sunset o'er the lake, Like one to whom the far-off is most near: "Yes, most folks think it has a pleasant look; I love it for my good old mother's sake, Who lived and died here in the peace of God!" The lesson of his words we pondered o'er,

As silently we turned the eastern flank Of the mountain, where its shadow deepest sank, Doubling the night along our rugged road: We felt that man was more than his abode,— The inward life than Nature's raiment more; And the warm sky, the sundown-tinted hill, The forest and the lake, seemed dwarfed and dim Before the saintly soul, whose human will Meekly in the Eternal footsteps trod, Making her homely toil and household ways An earthly echo of the song of praise Swelling from angel lips and harps of seraphim. 1862.

THE VANISHERS.

Sweetest of all childlike dreams In the simple Indian lore Still to me the legend seems Of the shapes who flit before.

Flitting, passing, seen and gone, Never reached nor found at rest, Baffling search, but beckoning on To the Sunset of the Blest.

From the clefts of mountain rocks, Through the dark of lowland firs, Flash the eyes and flow the locks Of the mystic Vanishers!

And the fisher in his skiff, And the hunter on the moss, Hear their call from cape and cliff, See their hands the birch-leaves toss.

Wistful, longing, through the green Twilight of the clustered pines, In their faces rarely seen Beauty more than mortal shines.

Fringed with gold their mantles flow On the slopes of westering knolls; In the wind they whisper low Of the Sunset Land of Souls.

Doubt who may, O friend of mine! Thou and I have seen them too; On before with beck and sign Still they glide, and we pursue.

More than clouds of purple trail In the gold of setting day; More than gleams of wing or sail Beckon from the sea-mist gray.

Glimpses of immortal youth, Gleams and glories seen and flown, Far-heard voices sweet with truth, Airs from viewless Eden blown;

Beauty that eludes our grasp, Sweetness that transcends our taste, Loving hands we may not clasp, Shining feet that mock our haste;

Gentle eyes we closed below, Tender voices heard once more, Smile and call us, as they go On and onward, still before.

Guided thus, O friend of mine Let us walk our little way, Knowing by each beckoning sign That we are not quite astray.

Chase we still, with baffled feet, Smiling eye and waving hand, Sought and seeker soon shall meet, Lost and found, in Sunset Land 1864.

THE PAGEANT.

A sound as if from bells of silver, Or elfin cymbals smitten clear, Through the frost-pictured panes I hear.

A brightness which outshines the morning, A splendor brooking no delay, Beckons and tempts my feet away.

I leave the trodden village highway For virgin snow-paths glimmering through A jewelled elm-tree avenue;

Where, keen against the walls of sapphire, The gleaming tree-bolls, ice-embossed, Hold up their chandeliers of frost.

I tread in Orient halls enchanted, I dream the Saga's dream of caves Gem-lit beneath the North Sea waves!

I walk the land of Eldorado, I touch its mimic garden bowers, Its silver leaves and diamond flowers!

The flora of the mystic mine-world Around me lifts on crystal stems The petals of its clustered gems!

What miracle of weird transforming In this wild work of frost and light, This glimpse of glory infinite!

This foregleam of the Holy City Like that to him of Patmos given, The white bride coming down from heaven!

How flash the ranked and mail-clad alders, Through what sharp-glancing spears of reeds The brook its muffled water leads!

Yon maple, like the bush of Horeb, Burns unconsumed: a white, cold fire Rays out from every grassy spire.

Each slender rush and spike of mullein, Low laurel shrub and drooping fern, Transfigured, blaze where'er I turn.

How yonder Ethiopian hemlock Crowned with his glistening circlet stands! What jewels light his swarthy hands!

Here, where the forest opens southward, Between its hospitable pines, As through a door, the warm sun shines.

The jewels loosen on the branches, And lightly, as the soft winds blow, Fall, tinkling, on the ice below.

And through the clashing of their cymbals I hear the old familiar fall Of water down the rocky wall,

Where, from its wintry prison breaking, In dark and silence hidden long, The brook repeats its summer song.

One instant flashing in the sunshine, Keen as a sabre from its sheath, Then lost again the ice beneath.

I hear the rabbit lightly leaping, The foolish screaming of the jay, The chopper's axe-stroke far away;

The clamor of some neighboring barn-yard, The lazy cock's belated crow, Or cattle-tramp in crispy snow.

And, as in some enchanted forest The lost knight hears his comrades sing, And, near at hand, their bridles ring,—

So welcome I these sounds and voices, These airs from far-off summer blown, This life that leaves me not alone.

For the white glory overawes me; The crystal terror of the seer Of Chebar's vision blinds me here.

Rebuke me not, O sapphire heaven! Thou stainless earth, lay not on me, Thy keen reproach of purity,

If, in this August presence-chamber, I sigh for summer's leaf-green gloom And warm airs thick with odorous bloom!

Let the strange frost-work sink and crumble, And let the loosened tree-boughs swing, Till all their bells of silver ring.

Shine warmly down, thou sun of noontime, On this chill pageant, melt and move The winter's frozen heart with love.

And, soft and low, thou wind south-blowing, Breathe through a veil of tenderest haze Thy prophecy of summer days.

Come with thy green relief of promise, And to this dead, cold splendor bring The living jewels of the spring! 1869.

THE PRESSED GENTIAN.

The time of gifts has come again, And, on my northern window-pane, Outlined against the day's brief light, A Christmas token hangs in sight.

The wayside travellers, as they pass, Mark the gray disk of clouded glass; And the dull blankness seems, perchance, Folly to their wise ignorance.

They cannot from their outlook see The perfect grace it hath for me; For there the flower, whose fringes through The frosty breath of autumn blew, Turns from without its face of bloom To the warm tropic of my room, As fair as when beside its brook The hue of bending skies it took.

So from the trodden ways of earth, Seem some sweet souls who veil their worth, And offer to the careless glance The clouding gray of circumstance. They blossom best where hearth-fires burn, To loving eyes alone they turn The flowers of inward grace, that hide Their beauty from the world outside.

But deeper meanings come to me, My half-immortal flower, from thee! Man judges from a partial view, None ever yet his brother knew; The Eternal Eye that sees the whole May better read the darkened soul, And find, to outward sense denied, The flower upon its inmost side 1872.

A MYSTERY.

The river hemmed with leaning trees Wound through its meadows green; A low, blue line of mountains showed The 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!

No clue of memory led me on, But well the ways I knew; A feeling of familiar things With every footstep grew.

Not otherwise above its crag Could lean the blasted pine; Not otherwise the maple hold Aloft its red ensign.

So up the long and shorn foot-hills The mountain road should creep; So, green and low, the meadow fold Its red-haired kine asleep.

The river wound as it should wind; Their place the mountains took; The white torn fringes of their clouds Wore no unwonted look.

Yet ne'er before that river's rim Was pressed by feet of mine, Never before mine eyes had crossed That broken mountain line.

A presence, strange at once and known, Walked with me as my guide; The skirts of some forgotten life Trailed noiseless at my side.

Was it a dim-remembered dream? Or glimpse through ions old? The secret which the mountains kept The river never told.

But from the vision ere it passed A tender hope I drew, And, pleasant as a dawn of spring, The thought within me grew,

That love would temper every change, And soften all surprise, And, misty with the dreams of earth, The hills of Heaven arise. 1873.

A SEA DREAM.

We saw the slow tides go and come, The curving surf-lines lightly drawn, The gray rocks touched with tender bloom Beneath the fresh-blown rose of dawn.

We saw in richer sunsets lost The sombre pomp of showery noons; And signalled spectral sails that crossed The weird, low light of rising moons.

On stormy eves from cliff and head We saw the white spray tossed and spurned; While over all, in gold and red, Its face of fire the lighthouse turned.

The rail-car brought its daily crowds, Half curious, half indifferent, Like passing sails or floating clouds, We saw them as they came and went.

But, one calm morning, as we lay And watched the mirage-lifted wall Of coast, across the dreamy bay, And heard afar the curlew call,

And nearer voices, wild or tame, Of airy flock and childish throng, Up from the water's edge there came Faint snatches of familiar song.

Careless we heard the singer's choice Of old and common airs; at last The tender pathos of his voice In one low chanson held us fast.

A song that mingled joy and pain, And memories old and sadly sweet; While, timing to its minor strain, The waves in lapsing cadence beat.

. . . . .

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 knew The trail of thy light gown, Where boy and girl sat down?

I see the gray fort's broken wall, The boats that rock below; And, out at sea, the passing sails We saw so long ago Rose-red in morning's glow.

The freshness of the early time On every breeze is blown; As glad the sea, as blue the sky,— The change is ours alone; The saddest is my own.

A stranger now, a world-worn man, Is he who bears my name; But thou, methinks, whose mortal life Immortal youth became, Art evermore the same.

Thou art not here, thou art not there, Thy place I cannot see; I only know that where thou art The blessed angels be, And heaven is glad for thee.

Forgive me if the evil years Have left on me their sign; Wash out, O soul so beautiful, The many stains of mine In tears of love divine!

I could not look on thee and live, If thou wert by my side; The vision of a shining one, The white and heavenly bride, Is well to me denied.

But turn to me thy dear girl-face Without the angel's crown, The wedded roses of thy lips, Thy loose hair rippling down In waves of golden brown.

Look forth once more through space and time, And let thy sweet shade fall In tenderest grace of soul and form On memory's frescoed wall, A shadow, and yet all!

Draw near, more near, forever dear! Where'er I rest or roam, Or in the city's crowded streets, Or by the blown sea foam, The thought of thee is home!

. . . . .

At breakfast hour the singer read The city news, with comment wise, Like one who felt the pulse of trade Beneath his finger fall and rise.

His look, his air, his curt speech, told The man of action, not of books, To whom the corners made in gold And stocks were more than seaside nooks.

Of life beneath the life confessed His song had hinted unawares; Of flowers in traffic's ledgers pressed, Of human hearts in bulls and bears.

But eyes in vain were turned to watch That face so hard and shrewd and strong; And ears in vain grew sharp to catch The meaning of that morning song.

In vain some sweet-voiced querist sought To sound him, leaving as she came; Her baited album only caught A common, unromantic name.

No word betrayed the mystery fine, That trembled on the singer's tongue; He came and went, and left no sign Behind him save the song he sung. 1874.

HAZEL BLOSSOMS.

The summer warmth has left the sky, The summer songs have died away; And, withered, in the footpaths lie The fallen leaves, but yesterday With ruby and with topaz gay.

The grass is browning on the hills; No pale, belated flowers recall The astral fringes of the rills, And drearily the dead vines fall, Frost-blackened, from the roadside wall.

Yet through the gray and sombre wood, Against the dusk of fir and pine, Last of their floral sisterhood, The hazel's yellow blossoms shine, The tawny gold of Afric's mine!

Small beauty hath my unsung flower, For spring to own or summer hail; But, in the season's saddest hour, To skies that weep and winds that wail Its glad surprisals never fail.

O days grown cold! O life grown old No rose of June may bloom again; But, like the hazel's twisted gold, Through early frost and latter rain Shall hints of summer-time remain.

And as within the hazel's bough A gift of mystic virtue dwells, That points to golden ores below, And in dry desert places tells Where flow unseen the cool, sweet wells,

So, in the wise Diviner's hand, Be mine the hazel's grateful part To feel, beneath a thirsty land, The living waters thrill and start, The beating of the rivulet's heart!

Sufficeth me the gift to light With latest bloom the dark, cold days; To call some hidden spring to sight That, in these dry and dusty ways, Shall sing its pleasant song of praise.

O Love! the hazel-wand may fail, But thou canst lend the surer spell, That, passing over Baca's vale, Repeats the old-time miracle, And makes the desert-land a well. 1874.

SUNSET ON THE BEARCAMP.

A gold fringe on the purpling hem Of hills the river runs, As down its long, green valley falls The last of summer's suns.

Along its tawny gravel-bed Broad-flowing, swift, and still, As if its meadow levels felt The hurry of the hill, Noiseless between its banks of green From curve to curve it slips; The drowsy maple-shadows rest Like fingers on its lips.

A waif from Carroll's wildest hills, Unstoried and unknown; The ursine legend of its name Prowls on its banks alone. Yet flowers as fair its slopes adorn As ever Yarrow knew, Or, under rainy Irish skies, By Spenser's Mulla grew; And through the gaps of leaning trees Its mountain cradle shows The gold against the amethyst, The green against the rose.

Touched by a light that hath no name, A glory never sung, Aloft on sky and mountain wall Are God's great pictures hung. How changed the summits vast and old! No longer granite-browed, They melt in rosy mist; the rock Is softer than the cloud; The valley holds its breath; no leaf Of all its elms is twirled The silence of eternity Seems falling on the world.

The pause before the breaking seals Of mystery is this; Yon miracle-play of night and day Makes dumb its witnesses. What unseen altar crowns the hills That reach up stair on stair? What eyes look through, what white wings fan These purple veils of air? What Presence from the heavenly heights To those of earth stoops down? Not vainly Hellas dreamed of gods On Ida's snowy crown!

Slow fades the vision of the sky, The golden water pales, And over all the valley-land A gray-winged vapor sails. I go the common way of all; The sunset fires will burn, The flowers will blow, the river flow, When I no more return. No whisper from the mountain pine Nor lapsing stream shall tell The stranger, treading where I tread, Of him who loved them well.

But beauty seen is never lost, God's colors all are fast; The glory of this sunset heaven Into my soul has passed, A sense of gladness unconfined To mortal date or clime; As the soul liveth, it shall live Beyond the years of time. Beside the mystic asphodels Shall bloom the home-born flowers, And new horizons flush and glow With sunset hues of ours.

Farewell! these smiling hills must wear Too soon their wintry frown, And snow-cold winds from off them shake The maple's red leaves down. But I shall see a summer sun Still setting broad and low; The mountain slopes shall blush and bloom, The golden water flow. A lover's claim is mine on all I see to have and hold,— The rose-light of perpetual hills, And sunsets never cold! 1876

THE SEEKING OF THE WATERFALL.

They left their home of summer ease Beneath the lowland's sheltering trees, To seek, by ways unknown to all, The promise of the waterfall.

Some vague, faint rumor to the vale Had crept—perchance a hunter's tale— Of its wild mirth of waters lost On the dark woods through which it tossed.

Somewhere it laughed and sang; somewhere Whirled in mad dance its misty hair; But who had raised its veil, or seen The rainbow skirts of that Undine?

They sought it where the mountain brook Its swift way to the valley took; Along the rugged slope they clomb, Their guide a thread of sound and foam.