University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
Sonnets and canzonets

Alcott, Amos Bronson (1799-1888)

collapse section 
[section]
  
PROEM.
collapse section1. 
PART I.
 1. 
[I. Auspicious morn, com'st opportune, unbought?]
 2. 
[II. Ah! why so brief the visit, short his stay?]
 3. 
[III. Not all the brilliant beauties I have seen]
 4. 
[IV. The April rains are past, the frosts austere]
 5. 
[V. Most precious leaves the mail delights to bring]
 6. 
[VI. 'T is but a half-hour's walk the Mill-Dam o'er]
 7. 
[VII. The morning's clear, the sky without a frown]
 8. 
[VIII. Mean are all titles of nobility]
 9. 
[IX. Now I no longer wait my love to tell]
 10. 
[X. Unconquerable and inviolate]
 11. 
[XI. Ancestral tendencies far down descend]
 12. 
[XII. Hither, the gray and shapely church beside]
 13. 
[XIII. My Lady reads, with judgment and good taste]
 14. 
[XIV. Not Wordsworth's genius, Pestalozzi's love]
 15. 
[XV. Daughter, beloved of all, thy tender eye]
 16. 
[XVI. When I remember with what buoyant heart]
 17. 
[XVII. 'T was not permitted thee the Fates to please]
 18. 
XVIII. LOVE'S MORROW.
 19. 
[XIX. O Death! thou utterest deeper speech]
 20. 
[XX. Voyager across the seas]
 21. 
[XXI. Dear Heart! if aught to human love I've owed]
 22. 
[XXII. Calm vale of comfort, peace, and industry]
collapse section2. 
PART II.
 1. 
[I. In Youth's glad morning, when the rising East]
 2. 
[II. My thought revives at utterance of thy name]
 3. 
[III. Christian beloved! devoid of art and wile]
 4. 
[IV. Channing! my Mentor whilst my thought was young]
 5. 
[V. Daughter of Memory! who her watch doth keep]
 6. 
[VI. Misfortune to have lived not knowing thee]
 7. 
[VII. Hierophant, and lyrist of the soul]
 8. 
[VIII. Pleased, I recall those hours, so fair and free]
 9. 
[IX. Dear Lady! oft I meditate on thee]
 10. 
[X. Thou, Sibyl rapt! whose sympathetic soul]
 11. 
[XI. Priest of the gladsome tidings, old and new]
 12. 
[XII. Interpreter of the Pure Reason's laws]
 13. 
[XIII. Who nearer Nature's life would truly come]
 14. 
[XIV. Much do they wrong our Henry, wise and kind]
 15. 
[XV. Whilst from the cloistered schools rushed forth in view]
 16. 
[XVI. Bright visions of my sprightlier youthful days]
 17. 
[XVII. Sweet saint! whose rising dawned upon the sight]
 18. 
[XVIII. Adventurous mariner! in whose gray skiff]
 19. 
[XIX. Romancer, far more coy than that coy sex]
 20. 
[XX. Still held in sweet remembrance thou, my friend]
 21. 
[XXI. Poet of the Pulpit, whose full-chorded lyre]
 22. 
[XXII. People's Attorney, servant of the Right]
 23. 
[XXIII. 'T was when the land was struggling to break free]
 24. 
[XXIV. Bold Saint, thou firm believer in the Cross]
 25. 
[XXV. Nobly censorious of our transient age]
 26. 
[XXVI. Freedom's first champion in our fettered land]
collapse section3. 
[section]
 27. 
[XXVII. O Thou, my country, ope thine eyes]

collapse section Collapse All | Expand All expand section
previous section Sonnets and canzonets
next section
139

[XXIII. 'T was when the land was struggling to break free]

'T was when the land was struggling to break free
From Slavery's fetter and provincial ban,
Whilst a great people dreaded liberty,—
That the dire conflict of thine age began.
Thy voice rang clear o'er selfish sect and clan;
Nor politician's, priest's, nor tradesman's plea
Did aught avail to quench, but more to fan
The flame that must consume all slavery,—
The serf then franchised and proclaimed a man.
Long wast thou heard amid the scoff and scorn
Of voices potent in thy city dear;
Steadfast didst face the storm, with heart of cheer,
And prove thyself the freeman nobly born,
Preacher of righteousness, of saints the peer.
previous section Sonnets and canzonets
next section