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

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[259]

After the war.

The peace Autumn.

Written for the Essex County Agricultural Festival, 1865.

thank God for rest, where none molest,
     And none can make afraid;
For Peace that sits as Plenty's guest
     Beneath the homestead shade!

Bring pike and gun, the sword's red scourge,
     The negro's broken chains,
And beat them at the blacksmith's forge
     To ploughshares for our plains.

Alike henceforth our hills of snow,
     And vales where cotton flowers;
All streams that flow, all winds that blow,
     Are Freedom's motive-powers.

Henceforth to Labor's chivalry
     Be knightly honors paid;
For nobler than the sword's shall be
     The sickle's accolade.

Build up an altar to the Lord,
     O grateful hearts of ours!
And shape it of the greenest sward
     That ever drank the showers.

Lay all the bloom of gardens there,
     And there the orchard fruits;