The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 4.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

I matched with Scotland's heathery hills
     The sweetbrier and the clover;
With Ayr and Doon, my native rills,
     Their wood-hymns chanting over.

O'er rank and pomp, as he had seen,
     I saw the Man uprising;
No longer common or unclean,
     The child of God's baptizing!

With clearer eyes I saw the worth
     Of life among the lowly;
The Bible at his Cotter's hearth
     Had made my own more holy.

And if at times an evil strain,
     To lawless love appealing,
Broke in upon the sweet refrain
     Of pure and healthful feeling,

It died upon the eye and ear,
     No inward answer gaining;
No heart had I to see or hear
     The discord and the staining.

Let those who never erred forget
     His worth, in vain bewailings;
Sweet Soul of Song! I own my debt
     Uncancelled by his failings!