384 JOHN GREEXLEAF WHITTIER. 



" The voice of Massachusetts ! of her free sons and daughters, 

 Deep calling unto deep aloud, the sound of many waters! 

 Against the burden of that voice what tyrant power shall stand? 

 No fetters in the Bay State! No slave upon her land! " 



At forty-nine, when the elections of 1856 had shown the gains 

 of the Free Soil party, he wrote thus : 



" For God be praised! New England 

 Takes once more her ancient place; 

 Again the Pilgrim's banner 



Leads the vanguard of the race. 



" The Northern hills are blazing, 

 The Northern skies are bright ; 

 The fair young West is turning 

 Her forehead to the light. 



• ••••• 



" Push every outpost nearer, 

 Press hard the hostile towers ! 

 Another Balaklava, 

 And the Malakoff is ours ! " * 



The tide was turning. Four years later came the war. Here 

 is a bit of his first war poem : 



" We see not, know not ; all our way 

 Is night, — with Thee alone is day: 

 From out the torrent's troubled drift, 

 Above the storm our prayers we lift, 

 Thy will be done!" 



" Strike, Thou the Master, we thy keys, 

 The anthem of the destinies ! 

 The minor of Thy loftier strain, 

 Our hearts shall breathe the old refrain. 

 Thy will be done ! f 



** Barbara Frietchie " % every one knows, — perhaps the most 

 instantly popular ballad of the war. '' Laus Deo ! " § in cele- 

 bration of the constitutional abolition of slavery, is not so 

 familiar. Every word of that should be read, too. Here are 

 a few: 



* " A Song," Poetical Works, Vol. III. p. 192. 



t " Thy Will be Done," Poetical Works, Vol. III. p. 217. 



t Poetical Works, Vol. III. p. 246. § Ibid., p. 254. 



