POEMS BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER PROEM. [Written to introduce the first general collection of Whittier's Poems.] I LOVE the old melodious lays Which softly melt the ages through, The songs of Spenser's golden days, Arcadian Sidney's silvery phrase, Sprinkling our noon of time with freshest morning dew. Yet, vainly in my quiet hours To breathe their marvellous notes I try; I feel them, as the leaves and flowers And drink with glad, still lips the blessing of the sky. The rigor of a frozen clime, The harshness of an untaught ear, The jarring words of one whose rhyme Beat often Labor's hurried time, 5 ΙΟ Or Duty's rugged march through storm and strife, are here. 15 B Of mystic beauty, dreamy grace, No rounded art the lack supplies; Unskilled the subtle lines to trace, Or softer shades of Nature's face, I view her common forms with unanointed eyes. Nor mine the seer-like power to show The secrets of the heart and mind; To drop the plummet-line below Our common world of joy and woe, A more intense despair or brighter hope to find. Yet here at least an earnest sense Of human right and weal is shown; And hearty in its vehemence, As if my brother's pain and sorrow were my own. O Freedom! if to me belong 20 25 30 As theirs, I lay, like them, my best gifts on thy shrine! 35 AMESBURY, 11th mo., 1847. Harrative and Legendary Poems THE VAUDOIS TEACHER. This poem was suggested by the account given And my pearls are pure as thy own fair neck, with whose radiant light they vie; The way, will my gentle lady buy?' lady smiled on the worn old man through the dark and clustering curls of the manner in which the Waldenses dissemi- I have brought them with me a weary nated their principles among the Catholic gentry. They gained access to the house through their occupation as peddlers of silks, jewels, and trinkets. 'Having disposed of some of their goods,' it is said by a writer who quotes the inquisitor Rainerus Sacco, 'they cautiously intimated that they had commodities far more valuable than these, inestimable jewels, which they would show if they could be protected from the clergy. They would then give their purchasers a Bible or Testament; and thereby many were deluded into heresy.' The poem, under the title Le Colporteur Vaudois, was translated into French by Pro 5 Which veiled her brow, as she bent to view his silks and glittering pearls; And she placed their price in the old man's hand and lightly turned away, But she paused at the wanderer's earnest call,-'My gentle lady, stay! purer lustre flings, fessor G. de Felice, of Montauban, and further 'O lady fair, I have yet a gem which a naturalized by Professor Alexandre Rodolphe Vinet, who quoted it in his lectures on French literature, afterwards published. It became familiar in this form to the Waldenses, who adopted it as a household poem. An American clergyman, J. C. Fletcher, frequently heard it when he was a student, about the year 1850, in the theological seminary at Geneva, Switzerland, but the authorship of the poem was unknown to those who used it. Twenty-five years later, Mr. Fletcher, learning the name of the author, wrote to the moderator of the Waldensian synod at La Tour, giving the information. At the banquet which closed the meeting of the synod, the moderator announced the fact, and was instructed in the name of the Waldensian church to write to me a letter of thanks. My letter, written in reply, was translated into Italian and printed throughout Italy. Than the diamond flash of the jewelled crown on the lofty brow of kings; 10 A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, whose virtue shall not decay, Whose light shall be as a spell to thee and a blessing on thy way!' 'O LADY fair, these silks of mine are The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow, beautiful and rare, The richest web of the Indian loom, which beauty's queen might wear; as a small and meagre book, Unchased with gold or gem of cost, from his folding robe he took! |