At Norridgewock. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892). New England: Norridgewock, Me. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. America: Vols. XXV-XXIX

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

New England: Norridgewock, Me.

At Norridgewock

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)


(From Mogg Megone) ’T IS morning over Norridgewock,—
On tree and wigwam, wave and rock.
Bathed in the autumnal sunshine, stirred
At intervals by breeze and bird,
And wearing all the hues which glow	5
In heaven’s own pure and perfect bow,
That glorious picture of the air,
Which summer’s light-robed angel forms
On the dark ground of fading storms,
With pencil dipped in sunbeams there,—	10
And, stretching out, on either hand,
O’er all that wide and unshorn land,
Till, weary of its gorgeousness,
The aching and the dazzled eye
Rests, gladdened, on the calm blue sky,—	15
Slumbers the mighty wilderness!
The oak, upon the windy hill,
Its dark green burthen upward heaves;
The hemlock broods above its rill,
Its cone-like foliage darker still,	20
Against the birch’s graceful stem,
And the rough walnut-bough receives
The sun upon its crowded leaves,
Each colored like a topaz gem;
And the tall maple wears with them	25
The coronal, which autumn gives,
The brief, bright sign of ruin near,
The hectic of a dying year!