Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO WHITTIER, by JOSEPHINE DEPHINE HENDERSON HEARD First Line: In childhood's sunny day my heart was taught to love Last Line: With condescension write for me thy name. Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Whittier, John Greenleaf (1807-1892) | ||||||||
In childhood's sunny day my heart was taught to love Thy name, all other poet's names above, And when to womanhood at last I came, Behold the spark was fanned into a flame, Nor did I dare presume that I should live, And to the honored, white-haired poet give My sentiment in rude constructed rhyme; O, wondrous change wrought by the hand of time! When he who came the slaves among to dwell, From frigid Idaho (We loved him well,) Athirst for knowledge I stood at his side, With quickening thought and eyes astonished, wide. He nightly read, and held me on his knee, From Whittier's "Snowbound" filling me with glee. The seed sown by his hand in infant heart, Has lived and grown, and cannot now depart. Now to the sunset thou hast set thy face, And silvery crown thy head doth grace; The mind of fertile thought doth not decline Preserved yet from the ravages of time Since I can never hope my first desire, To shake thy hand, which would my soul inspire, Now e're yet "the cord is loosed or pitcher broken," Grant me with thine own hand this little token: Ere yet that hand by feebleness grows lame, With condescension write for me thy name. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AS THE GREEK'S SIGNAL FLAME by WALT WHITMAN WHITE MAGIC: AN ODE by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER by PHOEBE CARY TO JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH WHITTIER by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE SNOW-MESSENGERS by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE TO THE POET WHITTIER, ON HIS 70TH BIRTHDAY by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE FOR WHITTIER'S SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES IN MEMORY OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES AN EPITAPH by JOSEPHINE DEPHINE HENDERSON HEARD |
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