To Whittier - A poem by Colfax Burgoyne Harman

To Whittier.

Rest thou in peace, O thou immortal mind!
A century hast thou spread a flow of
light,
In beauteous effulgence, pure and bright,
To illume the darkness brooding o'er mankind!
The chains that slavery forged thou didst unbind,
And, groping thru the darkness and the night,
Lost souls thou hast redeemed, and given sight
To those whom light of heaven sought to find.
None dearer to our nation's heart is known.
We have none greater in these shapes of clay.
Not nearer to his God has mortal grown,
Than thou who hast this moment passed away.
Sweet soul, thy robes in heaven now unfurled,
Take thou the benediction of a world.

^__Colfax Burgoyne Harman

Poems Of Sentiment
Colfax Burgoyne Harman
(Valley Falls, Kansas: Harman Publishing. 1905)
Page 42