September 17 The Harvard Classics, fifteen minutes a day
Romance on a New England Farm
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been.’” On this theme Whittier based the story of a fair farmer girl and a rich judge.
- Whittier died Sept. 17, 1892.
From the 1930 Reading Guide
Poems
John Greenleaf Whittier
Page 1351 opens with the last stanza of the poem before; the reading starts at “796 Maud Muller” on that page.
796 Maud Muller
MAUD MULLER on a summer’s dayRaked the meadow sweet with hay.
Beneath her torn hat glowed the wealthOf simple beauty and rustic health.
Singing, she wrought, and her merry gleeThe mock-bird echoed from his tree.
But when she glanced to the far-off town,White from its hill-slope looking down,
The sweet song died, and a vague unrestAnd a nameless longing filled her breast,—
A wish that she hardly dared to own,For something better than she had known.
The Judge rode slowly down the lane,Smoothing his horse’s chestnut mane.
He drew his bridle in the shadeOf the apple-trees, to greet the maid,
And asked a draught from the spring that flowedThrough the meadow across the road.
She stooped where the cool spring bubbled up,And filled for him her small tin cup,
And blushed as she gave it, looking downOn her feet so bare, and her tattered gown.
‘Thanks!’ said the Judge; ‘a sweeter draughtFrom a fairer hand was never quaffed.’
He spoke of the grass and flowers and trees,Of the singing birds and the humming bees;
Then talked of the haying, and wondered whetherThe cloud in the west would bring foul weather.
And Maud forgot her brier-torn gown,And her graceful ankles bare and brown;
And listened, while a pleased surpriseLooked from her long-lashed hazel eyes.
At last, like one who for delaySeeks a vain excuse, he rode away.
Maud Muller looked and sighed: ‘Ah me!That I the Judge’s bride might be!
‘He would dress me up in silks so fine,And praise and toast me at his wine.
‘My father should wear a broadcloth coat;My brother should sail a painted boat.
‘I’d dress my mother so grand and gay,And the baby should have a new toy each day.
‘And I’d feed the hungry and clothe the poor,And all should bless me who left our door.’
The Judge looked back as he climbed the hillAnd saw Maud Muller standing still.
‘A form more fair, a face more sweet,Ne’er hath it been my lot to meet.
‘And her modest answer and graceful airShow her wise and good as she is fair.
‘Would she were mine, and I to-day,Like her, a harvester of hay;
‘No doubtful balance of rights and wrongs,Nor weary lawyers with endless tongues,
‘But low of cattle and song of birds,And health and quiet and loving words.’
But he thought of his sisters, proud and cold,And his mother, vain of her rank and gold.
So, closing his heart, the Judge rode on,And Maud was left in the field alone.
But the lawyers smiled that afternoon,When he hummed in court an old love-tune;
And the young girl mused beside the wellTill the rain on the unraked clover fell.
He wedded a wife of richest dower,Who lived for fashion, as he for power.
Yet oft, in his marble hearth’s bright glow,He watched a picture come and go;
And sweet Maud Muller’s hazel eyesLooked out in their innocent surprise.
Oft, when the wine in his glass was red,He longed for the wayside well instead;
And closed his eyes on his garnished roomsTo dream of meadows and clover-blooms.
And the proud man sighed, with a secret pain,‘Ah, that I were free again!
‘Free as when I rode that day,Where the barefoot maiden raked her hay.’
She wedded a man unlearned and poor,And many children played round her door.
But care and sorrow, and childbirth pain,Left their traces on heart and brain.
And oft, when the summer sun shone hotOn the new-mown hay in the meadow lot,
And she heard the little spring brook fallOver the roadside, through the wall,
In the shade of the apple-tree againShe saw a rider draw his rein;
And, gazing down with timid grace,She felt his pleased eyes read her face.
Sometimes her narrow kitchen wallsStretched away into stately halls;
The weary wheel to a spinnet turned,The tallow candle an astral burned,
And for him who sat by the chimney lug,Dozing and grumbling o’er pipe and mug,
A manly form at her side she saw,And joy was duty and love was law.
Then she took up her burden of life again,Saying only, ‘It might have been.’
Alas for maiden, alas for Judge,For rich repiner and household drudge!
God pity them both! and pity us all,Who vainly the dreams of youth recall.
For of all sad words of tongue or pen,The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’
Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope liesDeeply buried from human eyes;
And, in the hereafter, angels mayRoll the stone from its grave away!
797 The Barefoot Boy
BLESSINGS on thee, little man,Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!With thy turned-up pantaloons,And thy merry whistled tunes;With thy red lip, redder stillKissed by strawberries on the hill;With the sunshine on thy face,Through thy torn brim’s jaunty grace;From my heart I give thee joy,—I was once a barefoot boy!Prince thou art,—the grown-up manOnly is republican.Let the million-dollared ride!Barefoot, trudging at his side,Thou hast more than he can buyIn the reach of ear and eye,—Outward sunshine, inward joy:Blessings on thee, barefoot boy!
Oh for boyhood’s painless play,Sleep that wakes in laughing day,Health that mocks the doctor’s rules,Knowledge never learned of schools,Of the wild bee’s morning chase,Of the wild-flower’s time and place,Flight of fowl and habitudeOf the tenants of the wood;How the tortoise bears his shell,How the woodchuck digs his cell,And the ground-mole sinks his well;How the robin feeds her young,How the oriole’s nest is hung;Where the whitest lilies blow,Where the freshest berries grow,Where the ground-nut trails its vine,Where the wood-grape’s clusters shine;Of the black wasp’s cunning way,Mason of his walls of clay,And the architectural plansOf gray hornet artisans!For, eschewing books and tasks,Nature answers all he asks;Hand in hand with her he walks,Face to face with her he talks,Part and parcel of her joy,—Blessings on the barefoot boy!
Oh for boyhood’s time of June,Crowding years in one brief moon,When all things I heard or saw,Me, their master, waited for.I was rich in flowers and trees,Humming-birds and honey-bees;For my sport the squirrel played,Plied the snouted mole his spade;For my taste the blackberry conePurpled over hedge and stone;Laughed the brook for my delightThrough the day and through the night,Whispering at the garden wall,Talked with me from fall to fall;Mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pond,Mine the walnut slopes beyond,Mine, on bending orchard trees,Apples of Hesperides!Still as my horizon grew,Larger grew my riches too;All the world I saw or knewSeemed a complex Chinese toy,Fashioned for a barefoot boy!
Oh for festal dainties spread,Like my bowl of milk and bread;Pewter spoon and bowl of wood,On the door-stone, gray and rude!O’er me, like a regal tent,Cloudy-ribbed, the sunset bent,Purple-curtained, fringed with gold,Looped in many a wind-swung fold;While for music came the playOf the pied frogs’ orchestra;And, to light the noisy choir,Lit the fly his lamp of fire.I was monarch: pomp and joyWaited on the barefoot boy!
Cheerily, then, my little man,Live and laugh, as boyhood can!Though the flinty slopes be hard,Stubble-speared the new-mown sward,Every morn shall lead thee throughFresh baptisms of the dew;Every evening from thy feetShall the cool wind kiss the heat:All too soon these feet must hideIn the prison cells of pride,Lose the freedom of the sod,Like a colt’s for work be shod,Made to tread the mills of toil,Up and down in ceaseless moil:Happy if their track be foundNever on forbidden ground;Happy if they sink not inQuick and treacherous sands of sin.Ah! that thou couldst know thy joy,Ere it passes, barefoot boy!
798 Skipper Ireson’s Ride
OF all the rides since the birth of time,Told in story or sung in rhyme,—On Apuleius’s Golden Ass,Or one-eyed Calender’s horse of brass,Witch astride of a human back,Islam’s prophet on Al-Borák,—The strangest ride that ever was spedWas Ireson’s, out from Marblehead!Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart,Tarred and feathered and carried in a cartBy the women of Marblehead!
Body of turkey, head of owl,Wings a-droop like a rained-on fowl,Feathered and ruffled in every part,Skipper Ireson stood in the cart.Scores of women, old and young,Strong of muscle, and glib of tongue,Pushed and pulled up the rocky lane,Shouting and singing the shrill refrain:‘Here’s Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt,Torr’d an’ futherr’d an’ corr’d in a corrtBy the women o’ Morble’ead!’
Wrinkled scolds with hands on hips,Girls in bloom of cheek and lips,Wild-eyed, free-limbed, such as chaseBacchus round some antique vase,Brief of skirt, with ankles bare,Loose of kerchief and loose of hair,With conch-shells blowing and fish-horns’ twang,Over and over the Maenads sang:‘Here’s Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt,Torr’d an’ futherr’d an’ corr’d in a corrtBy the women o’ Morble’ead!’
Small pity for him!—He sailed awayFrom a leaking ship in Chaleur Bay,—Sailed away from a sinking wreck,With his own town’s-people on her deck!‘Lay by! lay by!’ they called to him.Back he answered, ‘Sink or swim!Brag of your catch of fish again!’And off he sailed through the fog and rain!Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart,Tarred and feathered and carried in a cartBy the women of Marblehead!
Fathoms deep in dark ChaleurThat wreck shall lie forevermore.Mother and sister, wife and maid,Looked from the rocks of MarbleheadOver the moaning and rainy sea,—Looked for the coming that might not be!What did the winds and the sea-birds sayOf the cruel captain who sailed away?—Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart,Tarred and feathered and carried in a cartBy the women of Marblehead!
Through the street, on either side,Up flew windows, doors swung wide;Sharp-tongued spinsters, old wives gray,Treble lent the fish-horn’s bray.Sea-worn grandsires, cripple-bound,Hulks of old sailors run aground,Shook head, and fist, and hat, and cane,And cracked with curses the hoarse refrain:‘Here’s Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt,Torr’d an’ futherr’d an’ corr’d in a corrtBy the women o’ Morble’ead!’
Sweetly along the Salem roadBloom of orchard and lilac showed.Little the wicked skipper knewOf the fields so green and the sky so blue.Riding there in his sorry trim,Like an Indian idol glum and grim,Scarcely he seemed the sound to hearOf voices shouting, far and near:‘Here’s Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt,Torr’d an’ futherr’d an’ corr’d in a corrtBy the women o’ Morble’ead!’
‘Hear me, neighbors!’ at last he cried,—‘What to me is this noisy ride?What is the shame that clothes the skinTo the nameless horror that lives within?Waking or sleeping, I see a wreck,And hear a cry from a reeling deck!Hate me and curse me,—I only dreadThe hand of God and the face of the dead!’Said old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart,Tarred and feathered and carried in a cartBy the women of Marblehead!
Then the wife of the skipper lost at seaSaid, ‘God has touched him! why should we!’Said an old wife mourning her only son,‘Cut the rogue’s tether and let him run!’So with soft relentings and rude excuse,Half scorn, half pity, they cut him loose,And gave him a cloak to hide him in,And left him alone with his shame and sin.Poor Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart,Tarred and feathered and carried in a cartBy the women of Marblehead!
799 The Pipes at Lucknow
PIPES of the misty moorlands,Voice of the glens and hills;The droning of the torrents,The treble of the rills!Not the braes of bloom and heather,Nor the mountains dark with rain,Nor maiden bower, nor border tower,Have heard your sweetest strain!
Dear to the Lowland reaper,And plaided mountaineer,—To the cottage and the castleThe Scottish pipes are dear;—Sweet sounds the ancient pibrochO’er mountain, loch, and glade;But the sweetest of all musicThe pipes at Lucknow played.
Day by day the Indian tigerLouder yelled, and nearer crept;Round and round the jungle-serpentNear and nearer circles swept.‘Pray for rescue, wives and mothers,—Pray to-day!’ the soldier said;‘To-morrow, death’s between usAnd the wrong and shame we dread.’
Oh, they listened, looked, and waited,Till their hope became despair;And the sobs of low bewailingFilled the pauses of their prayer.Then up spake a Scottish maiden,With her ear unto the ground:‘Dinna ye hear it?—dinna ye hear it?The pipes o’ Havelock sound!’
Hushed the wounded man his groaning;Hushed the wife her little ones;Alone they heard the drum-rollAnd the roar of Sepoy guns.But to sounds of home and childhoodThe Highland ear was true;—As her mother’s cradle-crooningThe mountain pipes she knew.
Like the march of soundless musicThrough the vision of the seer,More of feeling than of hearing,Of the heart than of the ear,She knew the droning pibroch,She knew the Campbell’s call:‘Hark! hear ye no MacGregor’s,The grandest o’ them all!’
Oh, they listened, dumb and breathless,And they caught the sound at last;Faint and far beyond the GoomteeRose and fell the piper’s blast!Then a burst of wild thanksgivingMingled woman’s voice and man’s;‘God be praised!—the march of Havelock!The piping of the clans!’
Louder, nearer, fierce as vengeance,Sharp and shrill as swords at strife,Came the wild MacGregor’s clan-call,Stinging all the air to life.But when the far-off dust-cloudTo plaided legions grew,Full tenderly and blithesomelyThe pipes of rescue blew!
Round the silver domes of Lucknow,Moslem mosque and Pagan shrine,Breathed the air to Britons dearest,The air of Auld Lang Syne.O’er the cruel roll of war-drumsRose that sweet and homelike strain;And the tartan clove the turban,As the Goomtee cleaves the plain.
Dear to the corn-land reaperAnd plaided mountaineer,—To the cottage and the castleThe piper’s song is dear.Sweet sounds the Gaelic pibrochO’er mountain, glen, and glade;But the sweetest of all musicThe pipes at Lucknow played!
800 Barbara Frietchie
UP from the meadows rich with corn,Clear in the cool September morn,
The clustered spires of Frederick standGreen-walled by the hills of Maryland.
Round about them orchards sweep,Apple and peach tree fruited deep,
Fair as the garden of the LordTo the eyes of the famished rebel horde,
On that pleasant morn of the early fallWhen Lee marched over the mountain-wall;
Over the mountains winding down,Horse and foot, into Frederick town.
Forty flags with their silver stars,Forty flags with their crimson bars,
Flapped in the morning wind: the sunOf noon looked down, and saw not one.
Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;
Bravest of all in Frederick town,She took up the flag the men hauled down;
In her attic window the staff she set,To show that one heart was loyal yet.
Up the street came the rebel tread,Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.
Under his slouched hat left and rightHe glanced; the old flag met his sight.
‘Halt!’—the dust-brown ranks stood fast.‘Fire!’—out blazed the rifle-blast.
It shivered the window, pane and sash;It rent the banner with seam and gash.
Quick, as it fell, from the broken staffDame Barbara snatched the silken scarf.
She leaned far out on the window-sill,And shook it forth with a royal will.
‘Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,But spare your country’s flag,’ she said.
A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,Over the face of the leader came;
The nobler nature within him stirredTo life at that woman’s deed and word;
‘Who touches a hair of yon gray headDies like a dog! March on!’ he said.
All day long through Frederick streetSounded the tread of marching feet:
All day long that free flag tostOver the heads of the rebel host.
Ever its torn folds rose and fellOn the loyal winds that loved it well;
And through the hill-gaps sunset lightShone over it with a warm good-night.
Barbara Frietchie’s work is o’er,And the Rebel rides on his raids no more.
Honor to her! and let a tearFall, for her sake, on Stonewall’s bier.
Over Barbara Frietchie’s grave,Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!
Peace and order and beauty drawRound thy symbol of light and law;
And ever the stars above look downOn thy stars below in Frederick town!
Volume 42, pages 1351–1364 · See the scanned page on archive.org
This is the reading for September 17 in Fifteen Minutes a Day: The Reading Guide (1930 edition), page 75. There the assignment reads “Vol. 42, pp. 1351–1364.” Read it in the guide.