Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A GREETING; HARRIET BEECHER STOWE'S 70TH ANNIVERSARY, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Thrice welcome from the land of flowers Last Line: The noblest work by woman done. Subject(s): Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811-1896) | ||||||||
THRICE welcome from the Land of Flowers And golden-fruited orange bowers To this sweet, green-turfed June of ours! To her who, in our evil time, Dragged into light the nation's crime With strength beyond the strength of men, And, mightier than their swords, her pen! To her who world-wide entrance gave To the log-cabin of the slave; Made all his wrongs and sorrows known, And all earth's languages his own, -- North, South, and East and West, made all The common air electrical, Until the o'ercharged bolts of heaven Blazed down, and every chain was riven! Welcome from each and all to her Whose Wooing of the Minister Revealed the warm heart of the man Beneath the creed-bound Puritan, And taught the kinship of the love Of man below and God above; To her whose vigorous pencil-strokes Sketched into life her Oldtown Folks; Whose fireside stories, grave or gay, In quaint Sam Lawson's vagrant way With old New England's flavor rife, Waifs from her rude idyllic life, Are racy as the legends old By Chaucer or Boccaccio told; To her who keeps, through change of place And time, her native strength and grace, Alike where warm Sorrento smiles, Or where, by birchen-shaded isles, Whose summer winds have shivered o'er The icy drift of Labrador, She lifts to light the priceless Pearl Of Harpswell's angel-beckoned girl! To her at threescore years and ten Be tributes of the tongue and pen; Be honor, praise, and heart-thanks given, The loves of earth, the hopes of heaven! Ah, dearer than the praise that stirs The air to-day, our love is hers! She needs no guaranty of fame Whose own is linked with Freedom's name. Long ages after ours shall keep Her memory living while we sleep; The waves that wash our gray coast lines, The winds that rock the Southern pines, Shall sing of her; the unending years Shall tell her tale in unborn ears. And when, with sins and follies past, Are numbered color-hate and caste, White, black, and red shall own as one The noblest work by woman done. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HARRIET BEECHER STOWE'S WORKS: 'UNCLE TOM'S CABIN' by FRANK BARBOUR COFFIN LINES ADDRESSED TO MRS. H.B. STOWE ON HER VISIT TO GLASGOW, 1853 by JANET HAMILTON ELIZA HARRIS by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER TWO POEMS TO HARRIET BEECHER STOWE: 1. AT THE SUMMIT by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES TWO POEMS TO HARRIET BEECHER STOWE: 2. THE WORLD'S HOMAGE by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES THE BEECHER BEACHED by JOHN BANISTER TABB HARRIET BEECHER READ LORD BYRON by SAM CORNISH HARRIET BEECHER STOWE: SLAVERY AND THE DOMESTIC LIFE by SAM CORNISH CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA - EXPOSTULATION by JANET HAMILTON AMY WENTWORTH; FOR WILLIAM BRADFORD by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER |
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