Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Ichabod!
By John Greenleaf Whittier (18071892)S
Which once he wore!
The glory from his gray hairs gone
Forevermore!
A snare for all;
And pitying tears, not scorn and wrath,
Befit his fall!
When he who might
Have lighted up and led his age,
Falls back in night.
A bright soul driven,
Fiend-goaded, down the endless dark,
From hope and heaven!
Insult him now,
Nor brand with deeper shame his dim,
Dishonored brow.
From sea to lake,
A long lament, as for the dead,
In sadness make.
Save power remains,—
A fallen angel’s pride of thought,
Still strong in chains.
The soul has fled:
When faith is lost, when honor dies,
The man is dead!
To his dead fame;
Walk backward, with averted gaze,
And hide the shame!