Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/84

52  :“Join us!” cried the laughing May, “To the beach we all are going, And, to save the task of rowing, West by north the wind is blowing,
 * Blowing briskly down the bay!
 * Come away, come away!

Time and tide are swiftly flowing,
 * Let us take them while we may!

“Never tell us that you ’ll fail us, Where the purple beach-plum mellows
 * On the bluffs so wild and gray.

Hasten, for the oars are falling; Hark, our merry mates are calling; Time it is that we were all in,
 * Singing tideward down the bay!”
 * “Nay, nay, let me stay;

Sore and sad for Robert Rawlin
 * Is my heart,” she said, “to-day.”

“Vain your calling for Rob Rawlin! Some red squaw his moose-meat’s broiling,
 * Or some French lass, singing gay;

Just forget as he’s forgetting; What avails a life of fretting? If some stars must needs be setting,
 * Others rise as good as they.”
 * “Cease, I pray; go your way!”

Martha cries, her eyelids wetting;
 * “Foul and false the words you say!”

“Martha Mason, hear to reason! Prithee, put a kinder face on!”
 * “Cease to vex me,” did she say;

“Better at his side be lying, With the mournful pine-trees sighing, And the wild birds o’er us crying,
 * Than to doubt like mine a prey;
 * While away, far away,

Turns my heart, forever trying
 * Some new hope for each new day.

“When the shadows veil the meadows, And the sunset’s golden ladders
 * Sink from twilight’s walls of gray,—

From the window of my dreaming, I can see his sickle gleaming, Cheery-voiced, can hear him teaming
 * Down the locust-shaded way;
 * But away, swift away,

Fades the fond, delusive seeming,
 * And I kneel again to pray.

“When the growing dawn is showing, And the barn-yard cock is crowing,
 * And the horned moon pales away:

From a dream of him awaking, Every sound my heart is making Seems a footstep of his taking;
 * Then I hush the thought, and say,

‘Nay, nay, he’s away!’ Ah! my heart, my heart is breaking
 * For the dear one far away.”

Look up, Martha! worn and swarthy, Glows a face of manhood worthy:
 * “Robert!” “Martha!” all they say.

O’er went wheel and reel together, Little cared the owner whither; Heart of lead is heart of feather,
 * Noon of night is noon of day!
 * Come away, come away!

When such lovers meet each other,
 * Why should prying idlers stay?

Quench the timber’s fallen embers, Quench the red leaves in December’s
 * Hoary rime and chilly spray.

But the hearth shall kindle clearer, Household welcomes sound sincerer, Heart to loving heart draw nearer,
 * When the bridal bells shall say:
 * “Hope and pray, trust alway;

Life is sweeter, love is dearer,
 * For the trial and delay!”

the hills of home forth looking, far beneath the tent-like span Of the sky, I see the white gleam of the headland of Cape Ann. Well I know its coves and beaches to the ebb-tide glimmering down, And the white-walled hamlet children of its ancient fishing-town.

Long has passed the summer morning, and its memory waxes old, When along yon breezy headlands with a pleasant friend I strolled. Ah! the autumn sun is shining, and the ocean wind blows cool, And the golden-rod and aster bloom around thy grave, Rantoul!

With the memory of that morning by the summer sea I blend