Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891.

Whittier’s Eightieth Birthday

Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833–1908)

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,

Upon thy visage set their lustrous hue?

Speak, and interpret still, O Watchman true,

The signals answering thy lifted hand!

And bide thee yet! still linger, ere thy feet

To sainted bards that beckon bear thee down—

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.