DEVOUTEST of My Sunday friends, The patient Organ-blower bends; I see his figure sink and rise, (Forgive me, Heaven, my wandering eyes!) A moment lost, the next half seen, His head above the scanty screen, Still measuring out his deep salaams Through quavering hymns and panting psalms. No priest that prays in gilded stole, To […]

THE house was crammed from roof to floor, Heads piled on heads at every door; Half dead with August’s seething heat I crowded on and found my seat, My patience slightly out of joint, My temper short of boiling-point, Not quite at Hate mankind as such, Nor yet at Love them overmuch. Amidst the throng […]

SLOW toiling upward from’ the misty vale, I leave the bright enamelled zones below; No more for me their beauteous bloom shall glow, Their lingering sweetness load the morning gale; Few are the slender flowerets, scentless, pale, That on their ice-clad stems all trembling blow Along the margin of unmelting snow; Yet with unsaddened voice […]

Read at a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society. No! never such a draught was poured Since Hebe served with nectar The bright Olympians and their Lord, Her over-kind protector,– Since Father Noah squeezed the grape And took to such behaving As would have shamed our grandsire ape Before the days of shaving,– No! ne’er […]

WHILE far along the eastern sky I saw the flags of Havoc fly, As if his forces would assault The sovereign of the starry vault And hurl Him back the burning rain That seared the cities of the plain, I read as on a crimson page The words of Israel’s sceptred sage:– For riches make […]

AN APPEAL LISTEN, young heroes! your country is calling! Time strikes the hour for the brave and the true! Now, while the foremost are fighting and falling, Fill up the ranks that have opened for you! You whom the fathers made free and defended, Stain not the scroll that emblazons their fame You whose fair […]

IN poisonous dens, where traitors hide Like bats that fear the day, While all the land our charters claim Is sweating blood and breathing flame, Dead to their country’s woe and shame, The recreants whisper STAY! In peaceful homes, where patriot fires On Love’s own altars glow, The mother hides her trembling fear, The wife, […]

This poem, published anonymously in the Boston Evening Transcript, was claimed by several persons, three, if I remember correctly, whose names I have or have had, but never thought it worth while to publish. WHERE are you going, soldiers, With banner, gun, and sword? We ‘re marching South to Canaan To battle for the Lord […]

WASHED in the blood of the brave and the blooming, Snatched from the altars of insolent foes, Burning with star-fires, but never consuming, Flash its broad ribbons of lily and rose. Vainly the prophets of Baal would rend it, Vainly his worshippers pray for its fall; Thousands have died for it, millions defend it, Emblem […]

ONE country! Treason’s writhing asp Struck madly at her girdle’s clasp, And Hatred wrenched with might and main To rend its welded links in twain, While Mammon hugged his golden calf Content to take one broken half, While thankless churls stood idly by And heard unmoved a nation’s cry! One country! “Nay,”–the tyrant crew Shrieked […]

APRIL 27,1861 EIGHTY years have passed, and more, Since under the brave old tree Our fathers gathered in arms, and swore They would follow the sign their banners bore, And fight till the land was free. Half of their work was done, Half is left to do,– Cambridge, and Concord, and Lexington! When the battle […]

O GOD! in danger’s darkest hour, In battle’s deadliest field, Thy name has been our Nation’s tower, Thy truth her help and shield. Our lips should fill the air with praise, Nor pay the debt we owe, So high above the songs we raise The floods of mercy flow. Yet Thou wilt hear the prayer […]

GIVER of all that crowns our days, With grateful hearts we sing thy praise; Through deep and desert led by Thee, Our promised land at last we see. Ruler of Nations, judge our cause! If we have kept thy holy laws, The sons of Belial curse in vain The day that rends the captive’s chain. […]

“OLD HUNDRED” O LORD of Hosts! Almighty King! Behold the sacrifice we bring To every arm thy strength impart, Thy spirit shed through every heart! Wake in our breasts the living fires, The holy faith that warmed our sires; Thy hand hath made our Nation free; To die for her is serving Thee. Be Thou […]

LAND where the banners wave last in the sun, Blazoned with star-clusters, many in one, Floating o’er prairie and mountain and sea; Hark! ‘t is the voice of thy children to thee! Here at thine altar our vows we renew Still in thy cause to be loyal and true,– True to thy flag on the […]

‘T is like stirring living embers when, at eighty, one remembers All the achings and the quakings of “the times that tried men’s souls;” When I talk of Whig and Tory, when I tell the Rebel story, To you the words are ashes, but to me they’re burning coals. I had heard the muskets’ rattle […]

NAY, blame me not; I might have spared Your patience many a trivial verse, Yet these my earlier welcome shared, So, let the better shield the worse. And some might say, “Those ruder songs Had freshness which the new have lost; To spring the opening leaf belongs, The chestnut-burs await the frost.” When those I […]

OUR ancient church! its lowly tower, Beneath the loftier spire, Is shadowed when the sunset hour Clothes the tall shaft in fire; It sinks beyond the distant eye Long ere the glittering vane, High wheeling in the western sky, Has faded o’er the plain. Like Sentinel and Nun, they keep Their vigil on the green; […]

The Katydid is “a species of grasshopper found in the United States, so called from the sound which it makes.”–Worcester. I used to hear this insect in Providence, Rhode Island, but I do not remember hearing it in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I passed my boyhood. It is well known in other towns in the neighborhood […]

Now, by the blessed Paphian queen, Who heaves the breast of sweet sixteen; By every name I cut on bark Before my morning star grew dark; By Hymen’s torch, by Cupid’s dart, By all that thrills the beating heart; The bright black eye, the melting blue,– I cannot choose between the two. I had a […]