CHAPTER VII.

MASSACHUSETTS POETS AND THE WAR.

Poets, the Bards of Freedom. - Rev. John Pierpont.

- John G. Whittier. - Oliver Wendell Holmes. Henry W. Longfellow. - Mrs. Howe's Battle-hymn of the Republic.- James T. Fields. Gen. Lander.- S. Burnham, Esq. — The Press, and General Literature.

THE spirit of poetry is the spirit of freedom; and in all the struggles which

mark the pages of history, where the cause of human rights has been brought in collision with oppression and injustice, the poet's heart has beat true to noble impulses, and has interpreted the highest aspirations of the soul. The mind of man cannot be fettered. Tyranny may restrain the body: but it cannot reach that which constitutes the man; it cannot seize that inner self where the soul sings its songs of freedom undismayed. Thus it is, that, with few exceptions, the educated minds of the world have been identified with the cause of popular rights, with the best interests of humanity: they have been the leading revolutionary, re-actionary spirits, always striving for something higher, nobler, more sublime.

This is emphatically true of poets. In the long contest for the supremacy of human rights, they have tuned their harps to lofty strains, inspiring the people with a higher enthusiasm and enduring patience, a never-dying hope.

Trumbull, Paine, Hopkinson, Freeman, and others of the youthful days of the Republic, wielded a power with their verses which was not less real, though different in nature, than that of the sword and musket. They were both the admirers and the admiration of the sturdy patriots.

It would have been indeed remarkable if the late Rebellion had not been a fruitful source of poetry; for the great principles underlying the contest were those of truth and humanity, of liberty, of equal rights.

A glance through the newspapers and publications of the last four years shows that the pen has been no less active than the sword. The minds of our thinking men and of our poets rose immediately to the grandeur of the struggle; and, while bayonets gleamed, thoughts flashed. But aside from the contest and its origin and principles was another producing cause. Never before in the history of man was there a war in which the actors and the supporters were so intelligent and well educated.

And here we must claim the precedence for Massachusetts. The Old Bay State holds the advance-guard of thought as she does of action; and who will deny her claim to literary pre-eminence? But we would speak of her poetry

during the war; and when we mention Pierpont, Whittier, Holmes, Longfellow, Lowell, and a host of others, can any other State show such a brilliant galaxy of shining names? Would that it were possible to present all the noble poems that would tell of Massachusetts in the Rebellion! but we can give but a few specimens, simply enough to show how the hearts of our poets beat in sympathy with the cause of humanity; how their stirring, patriotic lines indorsed the call to the noble struggle.

No attempt is made at completeness (the design of this volume precludes its possibility); and we are conscious that there is many a fine poem, richly deserving a place in our pages, which is reluctantly omitted. But the quotations made will show that the poets of Massachusetts have honored themselves and their State, and have added fresh laurels to the wreaths of neverdying fame.*

We cannot introduce our selections more appropriately than by quoting from the venerable Rev. John Pierpont; a name identified with the cause of human liberty and progress; one of the champions of Freedom who was a leader, and not a follower; who held and published and spoke his sentiments in those days when to be an antislavery man was to be but too often a "hissing and a byword."

The two poems that follow are from Mr. Pierpont's pen.

"E PLURIBUS UNUM."

BY REV. JOHN PIERPONT.

1.

The harp of the minstrel with melody rings

When the Muses have taught him to touch and to tune it;
But, though it may have a full octave of strings,
To both maker and minstrel the harp is a unit:
So the Power that creates

Our Republic of States

Into harmony brings them at different dates;
And the thirteen or thirty, the Union once done,
Are E Pluribus Unum,- of many made one.

2.

The Science that weighs in her balance the spheres,

And has watched them since first the Chaldean began it,
Now and then, as she counts them and measures their years,
Brings into our system and names a new planet;

* In selecting poems for this chapter, Messrs. Ticknor and Fields kindly granted permission to copy from "The Atlantic Monthly," and other of their publications, such as would serve our purpose; and it has been an additional gratification that Holmes, Whittier, and Longfellow specified the pieces they preferred to have used in these pages. Courtesies like these are worthy of acknowledgment.

Of that system of spheres, should but one fly the track,
Or with others conspire for a general dispersion,
By the great central orb they would all be brought back,
And held each in her place by a wholesome coercion ;
Should one daughter of light

Be indulged in her flight,

They would all be ingulfed by old Chaos and Night:
So must none of our sisters be suffered to run;

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Let the demon of discord our melody mar,

Or Treason's red hand rend our union asunder,
Break one string from our harp, or extinguish one star,
The whole system's ablaze with its lightning and thunder.
Let the discord be hushed,

Let the traitors be crushed,

Though "Legion" their name, all with victory flushed!
For aye must our motto stand, fronting the sun,

E Pluribus Unum, - though many, we're ONE.

The Quaker poet, whose heart and pen have always been true to the cause of humanity, has written some of the noblest poems of the war. We have room but for two, and these he kindly specified for our use. Additional interest attaches to the first from the fact that the singing of it was prohibited in Gen M'Clellan's camp.