ODE INSCRIBED TO W. H. CHANNING THOUGH loath to grieve The evil time's sole patriot, I cannot leave My honied thought For the priest's cant, Or statesman's rant. If I refuse My study for their politique, Puts confusion in my brain. But who is he that prates Go, blindworm, go, Behold the famous States Harrying Mexico With rifle and with knife! Or who, with accent bolder, Dare praise the freedom-loving mountaineer? ODE I found by thee, O rushing Contoocook! 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,.... Funeral eloquence Rattles the coffin-lid.' What boots thy zeal, O glowing friend, That would indignant rend The northland from the south? Things are of the snake. The horseman serves the horse, 77 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 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; Wise and sure the issues are. Who marries Right to Might, Races by stronger races, Black by white faces, Knows to bring honey Out of the lion; On pirate and Turk. 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, Until he write, where all eyes rest, But they hurry to their peers, To their kinsfolk and their dears; |