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

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[178]

Revisited.

Read at ‘the laurels,’ on the Merrimac, 6th month, 1865.

the roll of drums and the bugle's wailing
     Vex the air of our vales no more;
The spear is beaten to hooks of pruning,
     The share is the sword the soldier wore!

Sing soft, sing low, our lowland river,
     Under thy banks of laurel bloom;
Softly and sweet, as the hour beseemeth,
     Sing us the songs of peace and home.

Let all the tenderer voices of nature
     Temper the triumph and chasten mirth,
Full of the infinite love and pity
     For fallen martyr and darkened hearth.

But to Him who gives us beauty for ashes,
     And the oil of joy for mourning long,
Let thy hills give thanks, and all thy waters
     Break into jubilant waves of song!

Bring us the airs of hills and forests,
     The sweet aroma of birch and pine,
Give us a waft of the north-wind laden
     With sweetbrier odors and breath of kine!

Bring us the purple of mountain sunsets,
     Shadows of clouds that rake the hills,
The green repose of thy Plymouth meadows,
     The gleam and ripple of Campton rills.