To Whittier on his Seventy-Fifth Birthday

To Whittier on his Seventy-Fifth Birthday (1882)
by James Russell Lowell

First presented in 1882; later published in a posthumous edition of Heartsease and Rue, 1882. Dedicated to John Greenleaf Whittier.

350646To Whittier on his Seventy-Fifth Birthday1882James Russell Lowell

New England's poet, rich in love as years,
Her hills and valleys praise thee, her swift brooks
Dance in thy verse; to her grave sylvan nooks
Thy steps allure us, which the wood-thrush hears
As maids their lovers', and no treason fears;
Through thee her Merrimacs and Agiochooks
And many a name uncouth win gracious looks,
Sweetly familiar to both Englands' ears:
Peaceful by birthright as a virgin lake,
The lily's anchorage, which no eyes behold
Save those of stars, yet for thy brother's sake
That lay in bonds, though blewst a blast as bold
As that wherewith the heart of Roland brake,
Far heard across the New World and the Old.