The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 3.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

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[164] Our Union, like a glacier stirred
     By voice below,
Or bell of kine, or wing of bird,
     A beggar's crust, a kindly word
May overthrow!

Poor, whispering tremblers! yet we boast
     Our blood and name;
Bursting its century-bolted frost,
     Each gray cairn on the Northman's coast
Cries out for shame!

Oh for the open firmament,
     The prairie free,
The desert hillside, cavern-rent,
     The Pawnee's lodge, the Arab's tent,
The Bushman's tree!

Than web of Persian loom most rare,
     Or soft divan,
Better the rough rock, bleak and bare,
     Or hollow tree, which man may share
With suffering man.

I hear a voice: “Thus saith the Law,
     Let Love be dumb;
Clasping her liberal hands in awe,
     Let sweet-lipped Charity withdraw
From hearth and home.”

I hear another voice: “The poor
     Are thine to feed;
Turn not the outcast from thy door,