Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by JOHN G. WHITTIER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. JAN 31 1910 Y W61 DEDICATION. I WOULD the gift I offer here Might graces from thy favor take, And, seen through Friendship's atmosphere, Few leaves of Fancy's spring remain : But what I have I give to thee,— The o'er-sunned bloom of summer's plain, And paler flowers, the latter rain Calls from the westering slope of life's autumnal lea. Above the fallen groves of green, Where youth's enchanted forest stood, The dry and wasting roots between, A sober after-growth is seen, As springs the pine where falls the gay-leafed maple wood! Yet birds will sing, and breezes play Their leaf-harps in the sombre tree; And through the bleak and wintry day So, even my after-thoughts may have a charm for thee. Art's perfect forms no moral need, But for the dull and flowerless weed Some healing virtue still must plead, And the rough ore must find its honors in its use. So haply these, my simple lays Of homely toil, may serve to show The orchard bloom and tasselled maize The unsung beauty hid life's common things below! Haply from them the toiler, bent Above his forge or plough, may gain A manlier spirit of content, And feel that life is wisest spent Where the strong working hand makes strong the working brain: : The doom which to the guilty pair Transforming sinless ease to care And rugged toil, no more shall bear The burden of old crime, or mark of primal shame. A blessing now -a curse no more; Since He, whose name we breathe with awe, The coarse mechanic vesture wore, A poor man toiling with the poor, In labor, as in prayer, fulfilling the same law. |