My Triumph
The autumn-time has come;
On woods that dream of bloom,
And over purpling vines,
The low sun fainter shines.
The aster-flower is failing,
The hazel’s gold is paling;
Yet overhead more near
The eternal stars appear!
And present gratitude
Insures the future’s good,
And for the things I see
I trust the things to be;
That in the paths untrod,
And the long days of God,
My feet shall still be led,
My heart be comforted.
O living friends who love me!
O dear ones gone above me!
Careless of other fame,
I leave to you my name.
Hide it from idle praises,
Save it from evil phrases:
Why, when dear lips that spake it
Are dumb, should strangers wake it?
Let the thick curtain fall;
I better know than all
How little I have gained,
How vast the unattained.
Not by the page word-painted
Let life be banned or sainted:
Deeper than written scroll
The colors of the soul.
Sweeter than any sung
My songs that found no tongue;
Nobler than any fact
My wish that failed of act.
Others shall sing the song,
Others shall right the wrong,—
Finish what I begin,
And all I fail of win.
What matter, I or they?
Mine or another’s day,
So the right word be said
And life the sweeter made?
Hail to the coming singers!
Hail to the brave light-bringers!
Forward I reach and share
All that they sing and dare.
The airs of heaven blow o’er me;
A glory shines before me
Of what mankind shall be,—
Pure, generous, brave, and free.
A dream of man and woman
Diviner but still human,
Solving the riddle old,
Shaping the Age of Gold!
The love of God and neighbor;
An equal-handed labor;
The richer life, where beauty
Walks hand in hand with duty.
Ring, bells in unreared steeples,
The joy of unborn peoples!
Sound, trumpets far off blown,
Your triumph is my own!
Parcel and part of all,
I keep the festival,
Fore-reach the good to be,
And share the victory.
I feel the earth move sunward,
I join the great march onward,
And take, by faith, while living,
My freehold of thanksgiving.
I read this for marks little fireside party and really grew to like it afterward. It might just be me, but i find it a little inspirational, and i already told Mrs. Gorman to read it.
ReplyDeleteI like this poem.
ReplyDeleteI like it because of the feel of rhapsody and transcendence and the achievement of something higher.
Yes, I know this lacks eloquence, but it's how I feel about the poem.
I'm not a huge fan of this poem. First of all, it's a little too lengthy for my liking. I don't know why, but when I read a poem I don't want to feel like I'm reading a short story. I also found some of the stanzas to be unconnected, but that may be because I'm not comprehending the poem the way Whittier intended when he wrote this.
ReplyDeleteI also thought this poem was a bit lengthy, perhaps simply from seeing traditionally shorter poems.
ReplyDeleteI'm divided on my feelings toward this one. I feel like the intensity of the poem does not build uniformly but rises and drops suddenly, seemingly unintentional.
I liked certain stanzas, such as the second one:
The aster-flower is failing,
The hazel’s gold is paling;
Yet overhead more near
The eternal stars appear!
"Hazel's gold" and "aster-flower" are two interesting word combinations; they inspire artistic images and remind me of a colorful oil painting. The whole poem reminds of a grand oil painting.
As to Tony and Lev's comments about length:
ReplyDeleteA long poem is not necessarily bad, and both of you recognize that this may be due to your own biases. Some of the best poems are quite long, especially the great epics, such as the Iliad, Odyssey, or Paradise Lost. I object even further to Tony's comment about disliking the poem because it resembles a short story. He may just be talking about the length, but it comes across as a criticism of all narrative poetry, which is a form that, while less popular in the modern age, has proven to be excellent throughout the ages.
Just wondering, Is it it just me or are a little longer poems actually easier to comprehend because it gives you more information to decipher?
ReplyDeleteWhen i read a shorter sonnet or sub-10 line poem, the lack of ideas is sometimes hard to actually comprehend what the poet is actually saying.
Yeah I get what you're saying, Peter. Longer poems do seem to be more explicit in their meaning. Shorter poems leave out more information and are more open to interpretation. I like it when a certain phrase can mean different things to different people.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, whatever, the long poem is cool too. It's more storylike.
Well, Peter, I finally got around to reading this, and I am surprisead/delighted that you like it. John Greenleaf Whittier is inspirational. There is less emphasis on craft in his poetry-simple rhyme and rhythm, a few interesting images, but theme is all. He is one of the "great American" poets--those who, like Longfellow, wrote at a time when poetry in this country had to have a "practical" purpose first. It took us a while to get the "sound before sense" concept in creating poetry. But once we did, American poetry became great. Where else could we have Whitman?
ReplyDelete