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Quotes by Whittier
71 quotations from The Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1896), with the subject each one is filed under.
Sheaves. Sorrow's Discipline. AGE (OLD). With silence only as their benediction, God's angels come Where in the shadow of a great affliction, The soul sits dumb!— filed under Affliction
Bible. Around the mighty master came The marvels which his pencil wrought, Those miracles of power whose fame Is wide as human thought.— filed under Art
Manhattan's Streets I Sauntered, Pondering. St. 6. Formed on the good old plan, A true and brave and downright honest man! He blew no trumpet in the market-place, Nor in the church with hypocritic face Supplied with cant the lack of Christian grace; Loathing pretence, he did with cheerful will What others talked of while their hands were still.— filed under Character
Third Evening. Oh, for boyhood's time of June, Crowding years in one brief moon, When all things I heard or saw, Me, their master, waited for.— filed under Childhood
Blow, bugles of battle, the marches of peace; East, west, north, and south let the long quarrel cease; Sing the song of great joy that the angels began, Sing of glory to God and of good-will to man!— filed under Christmas
And light is mingled with the gloom, And joy with grief; Divinest compensations come, Through thorns of judgment mercies bloom In sweet relief.— filed under Compensation
And beautiful maidens moved down in the dance, With the magic of motion and sunshine of glance; And white arms wreathed lightly, and tresses fell free As the plumage of birds in some tropical tree.— filed under Danger
Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through his cypress-trees! Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, Nor looks to see the breaking day Across the mournful marbles play!— filed under Despair
St. 1. Pluck one thread, and the web ye mar; Break but one Of a thousand keys, and the paining jar Through all will run.— filed under Xviii
Simple duty hath no place for fear.— filed under Easter
A bending staff I would not break, A feeble faith I would not shake, Nor even rashly pluck away The error which some truth may stay, Whose loss might leave the soul without A shield against the shafts of doubt.— filed under Faith
Through this dark and stormy night Faith beholds a feeble light Up the blackness streaking; Knowing God's own time is best, In a patient hope I rest For the full day-breaking!— filed under Faith
Give lettered pomp to teeth of Time, So "Bonnie Doon" but tarry: Blot out the epic's stately rhyme, But spare his Highland Mary!— filed under Fame
This day we fashion Destiny, our web of Fate we spin.— filed under Faults
Along the river's summer walk, The withered tufts of asters nod; And trembles on its arid stalk The hoar plume of the golden-rod. And on a ground of sombre fir, And azure-studded juniper, The silver birch its buds of purple shows, And scarlet berries tell where bloomed the sweet wild-rose!— filed under Flowers-Azalea
What airs outblown from ferny dells And clover-bloom and sweet brier smells.— filed under Flowers-Clover
The garden rose may richly bloom In cultured soil and genial air, To cloud the light of Fashion's room Or droop in Beauty's midnight hair, In lonelier grace, to sun and dew The sweetbrier on the hillside shows Its single leaf and fainter hue, Untrained and wildly free, yet still a sister rose!— filed under Flowers-Rosemary
In kindly showers and sunshine bud The branches of the dull gray wood; Out from its sunned and sheltered nooks The blue eye of the violet looks.— filed under Flowers-Violet
Swan flocks of lilies shoreward lying, In sweetness, not in music, dying, - Hardhack, and virgin's-bower, And white-spiked clethra-flower.— filed under Flowers-Woodbine
The nations lift their right hands up and swear Their oath of freedom.— filed under Freedom
Friendship. Actions, not Words. I have friends in Spirit Land, - Not shadows in a shadowy band, Not others but themselves are they, And still I think of them the same As when the Master's summons came.— filed under Friends
And the Creole of Cuba laughs out to behold, Through orange leaves shining the broad spheres of gold.— filed under Fruits
Let other lands, exulting, glean The apple from the pine, The orange from its glossy green, The cluster from the vine.— filed under Fruits
J,-fruit loved of boyhood!-the old days recalling, When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling! When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, Glaring out through the dark with a candle within! When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune, Our chair a broad pumpkin, -our lantern the moon, Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!— filed under Fruits
What does the good ship bear so well? The cocoa-nut with its stony shell, And the milky sap of its inner cell.— filed under Fruits
Happy he whose inward ear Angel comfortings can hear, O'er the rabble's laughter; And, while Hatred's fagots burn, Glimpses through the smoke discern Of the good hereafter.— filed under Gain
I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care.— filed under God
Behind the cloud the starlight lurks, Through showers the sunbeams fall; For God, who loveth all his works, Has left his Hope with all.— filed under Hope
Sheaves. Sweetness in Sorrow. Beauty for Ashes, and oil of joy!— filed under Joy
Edition of 1828. From purest wells of English undefiled None deeper drank than he, the New World's Child, Who in the language of their farm field spoke The wit and wisdom of New England folk.— filed under Language
But, by all thy nature's weakness, Hidden faults and follies known, Be thou, in rebuking evil, Conscious of thine own.— filed under Liberality
Our lives are albums written through With good or ill, with false or true; And as the blessed angeis turn The pages of our years, God grant they read the good with smiles, And blot the ill with tears!— filed under Life
"I'm sorry that I spell'd the word; I hate to go above you, Because"-the brown eyes lower fell,- Because, you see, I love you!"— filed under Love
O, rank is good, and gold is fair, And high and low mate ill; But love has never known a law Beyond its own sweet will!— filed under Loyalty
Greatness. When faith is lost, when honor dies, The man is dead!— filed under Man
Ah! memories of sweet summer eves, Of moonlit wave and willowy way, Of stars and flowers, and dewy leaves, And smiles and tones more dear than they!— filed under Memory
So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn Which once he wore; The glory from his gray hairs gone For evermore!— filed under Moderation
Up from the sea, the wild north wind is blowing Under the sky's gray arch; Smiling I watch the shaken elm boughs, knowing It is the wind of March.— filed under Months-April
Again the blackbirds sing; the streams Wake, laughing, from their winter dreams, And tremble in the April showers The tassels of the maple flowers.— filed under Months-May
And close at hand, the basket stood With nuts from brown October's wood. C.— filed under Months-October
The sun that brief December day Rose cheerless over hills of gray, And, darkly circled, gave at noon A sadder light than waning moon.— filed under Monuments
Cast not the clouded gem away, Quench not the dim but living ray, - My brother man, Beware! With that deep voice which from the skies Forbade the Patriarch's sacrifice, God's angel cries, Forbear!— filed under Murder
Choric Song. St. 1. And with a secret pain, And smiles that seem akin to tears, We hear the wild refrain.— filed under Name
Agriculture, Jan. 13, 1840. P. 457. But let the good old corn adorn The hills our fathers trod; Still let us, for his golden corn, Send up our thanks to God!— filed under Occupations-Alchemy
Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard! Heap high the golden corn! No richer gift has Autumn poured From out her lavish horn!— filed under Occupations-Alchemy
Speed on the ship; -But let her bear No merchandise of sin, No groaning cargo of despair Her roomy hold within; No Lethean drug for Eastern lands, Nor poison-draught for ours; But honest fruits of toiling hands And Nature's sun and showers.— filed under Occupations-Navigation
OCCUPATIONS-PERFUMERY. 447 I would I were a painter, for the sake Of a sweet picture, and of her who led, A fitting guide, with reverential tread, Into that mountain mystery.— filed under Occupations-Painting
of Aggavvam in America. Title Page. Rap, rap! upon the well-worn stone, How falls the polished hammer! Rap, rap! the measured sound has grown A quick and merry clamor. Now shape the sole! now deftly curl The glassy vamp around it, And bless the while the bright-eyed girl Whose gentle fingers bound it!— filed under Occupations-Shoemaking
Bunker Hill Monument. June 17, 1843. 66 Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag," she said.— filed under Patriotism
As on the Sea of Galilee, The Christ is whispering "Peace."— filed under Peace
Who is this before whose presence idols tumble to the sod? While he cries out-" Allah Akbar! and there is no god but God!" WM. Ross WALLACE-El Amin. The Faithful. Making their lives a prayer.— filed under Prayer
And I will trust that He who heeds The life that hides in mead and wold, Who hangs yon alder's crimson beads, And stains these mosses green and gold, Will still, as He hath done, incline His gracious care to me and mine.— filed under Providence
For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: "It might have been!"— filed under Regret
'Tis spring-time on the eastern hills! Like torrents gush the summer rills; Through winter's moss and dry dead leaves The bladed grass revives and lives, Pushes the mouldering waste away, And glimpses to the April day.— filed under Sows
Autumn. And Autumn, in his leafless bowers, Is waiting for the Winter's snow.— filed under Sows
Autumn's earliest frost had given To the woods below Hues of beauty, such as heaven Lendeth to its bow; And the soft breeze from the west Scarcely broke their dreamy rest.— filed under Sows
SEASONS (THE)-WINTER. Make we here our camp of winter; And, through sleet and snow, Pitchy knot and beechen splinter On our hearth shall glow. Here, with mirth to lighten duty, We shall lack alone Woman's smile and girlhood's beauty, Childhood's lisping tone.— filed under Sows
What miracle of weird transforming Is this wild work of frost and light, This glimpse of glory infinite?— filed under Self-Love
Green calm below, blue quietness above.— filed under Singers
A Christian! going, gone! Who bids for God's own image?-for his grace, Which that poor victim of the market-place Hath in her suffering won?— filed under Slavery
Christian Slave. Our fellow-countrymen in chains! Slaves-in a land of light and law! Slaves-crouching on the very plains Where rolled the storm of Freedom's war!— filed under Slavery
What! mothers from their children riven! What! God's own image bought and sold! AMERICANS to market driven, And bartered as the brute for gold!— filed under Slavery
So let it be in God's own might We gird us for the coming fight, And, strong in Him whose cause is ours In conflict with unholy powers, We grasp the weapons he has given, - The Light, and Truth, and Love of Heaven.— filed under Students
Could'st thou boast, O child of weakness! O'er the sons of wrong and strife, Were their strong temptations planted In thy path of life?— filed under Thanksgiving Day
Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West, From North and South, come the pilgrim and guest, When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board The old broken links of affection restored, When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more, And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before. What moistens the lips and what brightens the eye? What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?— filed under Thanksgiving Day
And let these altars, wreathed with flowers And piled with fruits, awake again Thanksgivings for the golden hours, The early and the latter rain !— filed under Thanksgiving Day
Of threads of palm was the carpet spun Whereon he kneels when the day is done, And the foreheads of Islam are bowed as one! To him the palm is a gift divine, Wherein all uses of man combine,- House and raiment and food and wine! And, in the hour of his great release, His need of the palm shall only cease With the shroud wherein he lieth in peace. "Allah il Allah!" he sings his psalm, On the Indian Sea, by the isles of balm; "Thanks to Allah, who gives the palm!"— filed under Trees And Plants-Palm
But dream not helm and harness The sign of valor true; Peace hath higher tests of manhood Than battle ever knew. C.— filed under Valor
Maud Muller looked and sighed: "Ah me! That I the Judge's bride might be! He would dress me up in silks so fine, And praise and toast me at his wine."— filed under Variety
WORLD (THE). Thine to work as well as pray, Clearing thorny wrongs away; Plucking up the weeds of sin, Letting heaven's warm sunshine in.— filed under Work
Tolerance. Press bravely onward!-not in vain Your generous trust in human kind; The good which bloodshed could not gain Your peaceful zeal shall find.— filed under Zephyrs