The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 1.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

With love rebuking, by his life alone,
     Gracious and sweet, the better way was shown,
The joy of one, who, seeking not his own,

And faithful to all scruples, finds at last
     The thorns and shards of duty overpast,
And daily life, beyond his hope's forecast,

Pleasant and beautiful with sight and sound,
     And flowers upspringing in its narrow round,
And all his days with quiet gladness crowned.

He sang not; but, if sometimes tempted strong,
     He hummed what seemed like Altorf's Burschensong;
His good wife smiled, and did not count it wrong.

For well he loved his boyhood's brother band;
     His Memory, while he trod the New World's strand,
A double-ganger walked the Fatherland!

If, when on frosty Christmas eves the light
     Shone on his quiet hearth, he missed the sight
Of Yule-log, Tree, and Christ-child all in white;

And closed his eyes, and listened to the sweet
     Old wait-songs sounding down his native street,
And watched again the dancers' mingling feet;