| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | Whittier’s Eightieth Birthday | | By Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833–1908) |
| | Ad Vigilem
WHAT seest thou, where the peaks about thee stand, | |
| Far up the ridge that severs from our view | |
| That realm unvisited? What prospect new | |
| Holds thy rapt eye? What glories of the land, | |
| Which from loftier cliff thou now hast scanned, | 5 |
| Upon thy visage set their lustrous hue? | |
| Speak, and interpret still, O Watchman true, | |
| The signals answering thy lifted hand! | |
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| And bide thee yet! still linger, ere thy feet | |
| To sainted bards that beckon bear thee down— | 10 |
| Though lilies, asphodel, and spikenard sweet | |
| Await thy tread to blossom; and the crown | |
| Long since is woven of Heaven’s palm-leaves, meet | |
| For him whom Earth can lend no more renown. | | | | |
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