James M. Whitfield's America and Other Poems


  Table of Contents:
Cover Page
Dedication
Introduction
"America"
"Christmas Hymn"
"Lines on the Death of J. Quincy Adams"
"To Cinque"
"New Year's Hymn"
"To A.H."
"Love"
"How Long"
"The Arch Apostate"
"The Misanthropist"
"A Hymn"
"Yes! strike again that sounding string"
"To -------"
"Prayer of the Oppressed"
"To S.A.T."
"Delusive Hope"
"To M.E.A."
"A Hymn"
"Self-Reliance"
"Ode for the Fourth of July"
"Midnight Musings"
"Ode to Music"
"Stanzas for the First of August"
"The North Star"
(text of all poems)

  To M.E.A. p1
"To M.E.A."
close-up 1 | 2


OH! had I that poetic lore
   Bestowed upon the favored few,
To ope’ Dame Nature’s bounteous store,
   And hold her treasures up to view,
To climb Parnassus’ lofty mount,
Or taste the Muses’ sacred fount,
The far-famed Heliconian spring,
Which Grecian poets erst did sing, ---
And did Apollo, and the Nine,
With eloquence and verse divine,
Direct my pen --- I scarce could tell
The numerous charms which in thee dwell.
Thy loveliness of form and face
Might serve as model for a Grace;
And the bright luster of thine eye
Mahomet’s Houris far outvie.
The nobler beauties of the mind,
   Refined and elevated taste;
Great moral purity, combined
   With every outward charm and grace
To M.E.A. p2 And reason, governing the whole,
Displays in every act, a soul
High raised above the things which bind
Down to the earth more sordid minds;
And, soaring fetterless and free
In its unsullied purity,
Seems like a seraph wandering here,
The native of a brighter sphere.

Introduction Biography Contexts Critical Voices Teaching Approaches Bibliography