Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/153

Rh :The secret of thy worth And wisdom well I know.

Happy must be the State
 * Whose ruler heedeth more
 * The murmurs of the poor

Than flatteries of the great.”

[Written at the request of a young lady, who said to the poet: “Mr. Whittier, you never wrote a love song. I do not believe you can write one. I wish you would try to write one for me to sing.” In sending the poem afterward to the editor of The Independent, Whittier wrote: “I send, in compliance with the wish of Mr. Bowen and thyself, a ballad upon which, though not long, I have bestowed a good deal of labor. It is not exactly a