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

‘Arise,’ he said, “why look behind,
     When hope is all before,
And patient hand and willing mind,
     Your loss may yet restore?

I leave with you a spell whose power
     Can make the desert glad,
And call around you fruit and flower
     As fair as Eden had.

I clothe your hands with power to lift
     The curse from off your soil;
Your very doom shall seem a gift,
     Your loss a gain through Toil.

Go, cheerful as yon humming-bees,
     To labor as to play. “
White glimmering over Eden's trees
     The angel passed away.

The pilgrims of the world went forth
     Obedient to the word,
And found where'er they tilled the earth
     A garden of the Lord!

The thorn-tree cast its evil fruit
     And blushed with plum and pear,
And seeded grass and trodden root
     Grew sweet beneath their care.