Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
The Pilgrim Fathers
By John Pierpont (1785–1866)T
The waves that brought them o’er
Still roll in the bay, and throw their spray
As they break along the shore:
Still roll in the bay, as they rolled that day,
When the May-Flower moored below,
When the sea around was black with storms,
And white the shore with snow.
Still brood upon the tide;
And his rocks yet keep their watch by the deep,
To stay its waves of pride.
But the snow-white sail, that he gave to the gale,
When the heavens looked dark, is gone;
As an angel’s wing, through an opening cloud,
Is seen, and then withdrawn.
The hill, whose icy brow
Rejoiced, when he came, in the morning’s flame,
In the morning’s flame burns now.
And the moon’s cold light, as it lay that night
On the hillside and the sea,
Still lies where he laid his houseless head;—
But the pilgrim—where is he?
When Summer ’s throned on high,
And the world’s warm breast is in verdure dressed,
Go, stand on the hill where they lie.
The earliest ray of the golden day
On that hallowed spot is cast;
And the evening sun, as he leaves the world,
Looks kindly on that spot last.
It walks in noon’s broad light;
And it watches the bed of the glorious dead,
With the holy stars, by night.
It watches the bed of the brave who have bled,
And shall guard this ice-bound shore,
Till the waves of the bay, where the May-Flower lay,
Shall foam and freeze no more.