JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. 383 



At twenty-eight, -when resolutions had been adopted in Con- 

 gress, forbidding the postal circulation of anti-slavery literature, 

 he wrote a "Summons " to the North.* Here is a touch of its 

 quality : 



" Methinks from all her wild, green mountains ; 

 From valleys where her slumbering fathers lie ; 

 From her blue rivers and her welling fountains. 

 And clear, cold sky ; 



" From her rough coast, and isles, which hungry Ocean 

 Gnaws with his surges; from the fisher's skiff, 

 AVith white sail swaying to the billows' motion 

 Round rock and cliff; 



" From the free fireside of her unbought farmer; 

 From her free laborer at his loom and wheel ; 

 From the brown smith-shop, where, beneath the hammer. 

 Rings the red steel ; 



" From each and all, if God hath not forsaken 

 Our land, and left us to an evil choice, 

 Loud as the summer thunderbolt shall waken 

 A People's voice. 



" Startling and stern ! the Northern winds shall bear it 

 Over Potomac's to St. Mary's wave ; 

 And buried Freedom shall awake to hear it 

 Within her grave." 



At thirty-five he wrote the passionate address, " Massachusetts 

 to Virginia," f concerning the seizure in Boston of one Latimer, 

 a fugitive slave. To appreciate its stirring vigor one should 

 read it all. But here is a bit of it : 



"From Norfolk's ancient villages, from Plymouth's rocky bound 

 To where Nantucket feels the arms of ocean close her round; 



' From rich and rural Worcester, where through the calm repose 

 Of cultured vales and fringing woods the gentle Nashua flows, 

 To where Wachuset's wintry blasts the mountain larches stir, 

 Swelled up to Heaven the thrilling cry of ' God save Latimer! 



" And sandy Barnstable rose up, wet with the salt sea spray, 

 And Bristol sent her answering shout down Narragansett Bay 1 

 Along the broad Connecticut old Hampden felt the thrill. 

 And the cheer of Hampshire's woodmen swept down from Holyoke Hill. 



* Poetical Works, Vol. H. p. 40. t Ibid., Vol. III. p. 80. 



