Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.

Occasional Poems

At School-Close

THE END has come, as come it must

To all things; in these sweet June days

The teacher and the scholar trust

Their parting feet to separate ways.

They part: but in the years to be

Shall pleasant memories cling to each,

As shells bear inland from the sea

The murmur of the rhythmic beach.

One knew the joy the sculptor knows

When, plastic to his lightest touch,

His clay-wrought model slowly grows

To that fine grace desired so much.

So daily grew before her eyes

The living shapes whereon she wrought,

Strong, tender, innocently wise,

The child’s heart with the woman’s thought.

And one shall never quite forget

The voice that called from dream and play,

The firm but kindly hand that set

Her feet in learning’s pleasant way,—

The joy of Undine soul-possessed,

The wakening sense, the strange delight

That swelled the fabled statue’s breast

And filled its clouded eyes with sight!

O Youth and Beauty, loved of all!

Ye pass from girlhood’s gate of dreams;

In broader ways your footsteps fall,

Ye test the truth of all that seems.

Her little realm the teacher leaves,

She breaks her wand of power apart,

While, for your love and trust, she gives

The warm thanks of a grateful heart.

Hers is the sober summer noon

Contrasted with your morn of spring,

The waning with the waxing moon,

The folded with the outspread wing.

Across the distance of the years

She sends her God-speed back to you;

She has no thought of doubts or fears:

Be but yourselves, be pure, be true,

And prompt in duty; heed the deep,

Low voice of conscience; through the ill

And discord round about you, keep

Your faith in human nature still.

Be gentle: unto griefs and needs,

Be pitiful as woman should,

And, spite of all the lies of creeds,

Hold fast the truth that God is good.

Give and receive; go forth and bless

The world that needs the hand and heart

Of Martha’s helpful carefulness

No less than Mary’s better part.

So shall the stream of time flow by

And leave each year a richer good,

And matron loveliness outvie

The nameless charm of maidenhood.

And, when the world shall link your names

With gracious lives and manners fine,

The teacher shall assert her claims,

And proudly whisper, “These were mine!”