I found by thee, O rushing Contoocook! And in thy valleys, Agiochook! The jackals of the negro-holder. The God who made New Hampshire Taunted the lofty land With little men; Small bat and wren House in the oak: If earth-fire cleave The upheaved land, and bury the folk, The southern crocodile would grieve. Virtue palters; Right is hence; Freedom praised, but hid; Funeral eloquence Rattles the coffin-lid.' What boots thy zeal, O glowing friend, That would indignant rend The northland from the south? The horseman serves the horse, The neatherd serves the neat, The merchant serves the purse, The eater serves his meat; 'Tis the day of the chattel, Web to weave, and corn to grind; Things are in the saddle, And ride mankind. There are two laws discrete, Not reconciled, Law for man, and law for thing; The last builds town and fleet, But it runs wild, And doth the man unking. 'Tis fit the forest fall, The steep be graded, The mountain tunnelled, The sand shaded, The orchard planted, The glebe tilled, The prairie granted, The steamer built. Let man serve law for man; Yet do not I implore The wrinkled shopman to my sounding woods, Nor bid the unwilling senator Ask votes of thrushes in the solitudes. Every one to his chosen work; Foolish hands may mix and mar; Who marries Right to Might, Races by stronger races, The Cossack eats Poland, Like stolen fruit; Her last noble is ruined, Her last poet mute: Straight, into double band The victors divide; Half for freedom strike. and stand; The astonished Muse finds thousands at her side. ASTREA EACH the herald is who wrote Each to all is venerable, Cap-a-pie invulnerable, Until he write, where all eyes rest, And the friend not hesitates IX Every wayfarer he meets What himself declared repeats, The form is his own corporal form, The durance of a granite ledge. To those who gaze from the sea's edge It is there for benefit; I It is there for purging light; |