Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/352

320   While the flag with stars bedecked Threatens where it should protect,
 * And the Law shakes hands with Crime,

What is left us but to wait, Match our patience to our fate,
 * And abide the better time?

Patience, friends! The human heart Everywhere shall take our part,
 * Everywhere for us shall pray;

On our side are nature’s laws, And God’s life is in the cause That we suffer for to-day.

Well to suffer is divine; Pass the watchword down the line,
 * Pass the countersign: “Endure.”

Not to him who rashly dares, But to him who nobly bears,
 * Is the victor’s garland sure.

Frozen earth to frozen breast, Lay our slain one down to rest;
 * Lay him down in hope and faith,

And above the broken sod, Once again, to Freedom’s God,
 * Pledge ourselves for life or death,

That the State whose walls we lay, In our blood and tears, to-day,
 * Shall be free from bonds of shame,

And our goodly land untrod By the feet of Slavery, shod
 * With cursing as with flame!

Plant the Buckeye on his grave, For the hunter of the slave
 * In its shadow cannot rest;

And let martyr mound and tree Be our pledge and guaranty
 * Of the freedom of the West!

as of roses
 * Where rose never grew!

Great drops on the bunch-grass,
 * But not of the dew!

A taint in the sweet air
 * For wild bees to shun!

A stain that shall never
 * Bleach out in the sun!

Back, steed of the prairies!
 * Sweet song-bird, fly back!

Wheel hither, bald vulture!
 * Gray wolf, call thy pack!

The foul human vultures
 * Have feasted and fled;

The wolves of the Border
 * Have crept from the dead.

From the hearths of their cabins,
 * The fields of their corn,

Unwarned and unweaponed,
 * The victims were torn,—