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

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[273] Oh, ideal of my boyhood's time!
     The faith in which my father stood,
Even when the sons of Lust and Crime
     Had stained thy peaceful courts with blood!

Still to those courts my footsteps turn,
     For through the mists which darken there,
I see the flame of Freedom burn,—
     The Kebla of the patriot's prayer!

The generous feeling, pure and warm,
     Which owns the right of all divine;
The pitying heart, the helping arm,
     The prompt self-sacrifice, are thine.

Beneath thy broad, impartial eye,
     How fade the lines of caste and birth!
How equal in their suffering lie
     The groaning multitudes of earth!

Still to a stricken brother true,
     Whatever clime hath nurtured him;
As stooped to heal the wounded Jew
     The worshipper of Gerizim.

By misery unrepelled, unawed
     By pomp or power, thou seest a Man
In prince or peasant, slave or lord,
     Pale priest, or swarthy artisan.

Through all disguise, form, place, or name,
     Beneath the flaunting robes of sin,
Through poverty and squalid shame,
     Thou lookest on the man within.