Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | New England: Marshfield, Mass. | | Webster | | William Henry Cuyler Hosmer (1814–1877) |
| | (Excerpt)
A CLOUD is over Marshfield, and the wail | |
| Of a vast empire floats upon the gale; | |
| One without peer has shaken hands with death, | |
| And yielded to the elements his breath: | |
| Admonished that the last great change was nigh, | 5 |
| Majestic in decline, he came to die | |
| Back to the rural scenes he loved so well, | |
| Cheered by the low of kine, and pastoral bell,— | |
| Back, where his ear once more might catch the roll | |
| Of the roused Ocean,—symbol of his soul! | 10 |
| |
| The agony is o’er,—the goal is won,— | |
| Earth opens to receive her greatest son! | |
| The world seems poorer now, the sky less fair, | |
| And reigns a brooding sadness everywhere! | |
| Mourn, stern New England! mother of the dead! | 15 |
| Bow to the dust thy richly laurelled head! | |
| He was thy pride, the prop of thy renown, | |
| The brightest jewel in thy dazzling crown; | |
| Thy battle-fields of liberty he trod, | |
| Holding thy soil in reverence next to God, | 20 |
| And the proud triumphs of his matchless mind | |
| Are closely with thy heart-strings intertwined. * * * * * | | | | |
|
|
