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

---

---

[395] Our wives are all true, and our daughters are fair,
     With their blue eyes of smiles and their light flowing hair,
All brisk at their wheels till the dark even-fall,
     Then blithe at the sleigh-ride, the husking, and ball!

We've sheep on the hillsides, we've cows on the plain,
     And gay-tasselled corn-fields and rank-growing grain;
There are deer on the mountains, and wood-pigeons fly
     From the crack of our muskets, like clouds on the sky.

And there's fish in our streamlets and rivers which take
     Their course from the hills to our broad-bosomed lake;
Through rock-arched Winooski the salmon leaps free,
     And the portly shad follows all fresh from the sea.

Like a sunbeam the pickerel glides through the pool,
     And the spotted trout sleeps where the water is cool,
Or darts from his shelter of rock and of root
     At the beaver's quick plunge, or the angler's pursuit.

And ours are the mountains, which awfully rise,
     Till they rest their green heads on the blue of the skies;
And ours are the forests unwasted, unshorn,
     Save where the wild path of the tempest is torn.

And though savage and wild be this climate of ours,
     And brief be our season of fruits and of flowers,
Far dearer the blast round our mountains which raves,
     Than the sweet summer zephyr which breathes over slaves!

Hurrah for Vermont! For the land which we till
     Must have sons to defend her front valley and hill;
Leave the harvest to rot on the fields where it grows,
     And the reaping of wheat for the reaping of foes.

From far Michiscom's wild valley, to where
     Poosoonsuck steals down from his wood-circled lair,
From Shocticook River to Lutterlock town—
     Ho—all to the rescue! Vermonters, come down!

Come York or come Hampshire, come traitors or knaves
     If ye rule o'er our land, ye shall rule o'er our graves;
Our vow is recorded—our banner unfurled,
     In the name of Vermont we defy all the world!