THE MERRIMACK
By John Greenleaf Whittier
[“The Indians speak of a beautiful river far to the south which they call Merrimack.” -- Sieur de Monts: 1604]
Stream of my fathers sweetly still
The sunset rays thy valley fill
Poured slantwise down the long defile
Wave, wood and spire beneath them smile.
I see the winding Powow fold
The green hill in its belt of gold
And following down its wavy line
Its sparkling waters blend with thine.
There’s not a tree upon thy side
Nor rock which thy returning tide
As yet hath left abrupt and stark
Above thy evening water-mark;
No calm cove with its rocky hem
No isle whose emerald swells begem
Thy broad smooth current not a sail
Bowed to the freshening ocean gale
No small boat with its busy oars
Nor gray wall sloping to thy shores
Nor farm house with its maple shade
Or rigid poplar colonnade
But lies distinct and full in sight
Beneath this gush of sunset light.
Centuries ago that harbor bar
Stretching its length of foam afar
And Salisbury's beach of shining sand
And yonder island's wave smoothed strand
Saw the adventurer's tiny [1]
Flit stooping from the eastern gale
And o’er these woods and waters broke
The cheer from Britain's hearts of oak
As brightly on the voyager's eye
Weary of forest sea and sky
Breaking the dull continuous wood
The Merrimack rolled down his flood
Mingling that clear pellucid brook
Which channels vast Agioochook [2]
When spring time's sun and shower unlock
The frozen fountains of the rock
And more abundant waters given
From that pure lake The Smile of Heaven [3]
Tributes from vale and mountain side
With ocean's dark eternal tide!
On yonder rocky cape which braves
The stormy challenge of the waves
Midst tangled vine and dwarfish wood
The hardy Anglo Saxon stood
Planting upon the topmost crag
The staff of England's battle flag
And while from out its heavy fold
Saint George's crimson cross unrolled
Midst roll of drum and trumpet blare
And weapons brandishing in air
He gave to that lone promontory
The sweetest name in all his story [4]
Of her the flower of Islam's daughters
Whose harems look on Stamboul's waters
Who, when the chance of war had bound
The Moslem chain his limbs around
Wreathed o’er with silk that iron chain
Soothed with her smiles his hours of pain
And fondly to her youthful slave
A dearer gift than freedom gave.
But look! -- the yellow light no more
Streams down on wave and verdant shore
And clearly on the calm air swells
The twilight voice of distant bells
From Ocean's bosom white and thin
The mists come slowly rolling in
Hills woods the river's rocky rim
Amidst the sea like vapor swim
While yonder lonely coast light, set
Within its wave washed minaret
Half quenched a beamless star and pale
Shines dimly through its cloudy veil !
Home of my fathers I have stood
Where Hudson rolled his lordly flood
Seen sunrise rest and sunset fade
Along his frowning Palisade
Looked down the Appalachian peak
On Juniata's silver streak
Have seen along his valley gleam
The Mohawk's softly winding stream
The level light of sunset shine
Through broad Potomac's hem of pine
And autumn's rainbow tinted banner
Hang lightly o’er the Susquehanna
Yet wheresoe’er his step might be
Thy wandering child looked back to thee
Heard in his dreams thy river's sound
Of murmuring on its pebbly bound
The unforgotten swell and roar
Of waves on thy familiar shore
And saw amidst the curtained gloom
And quiet of his lonely room
Thy sunset scenes before him pass
As in Agrippa's magic glass
The loved and lost arose to view
Remembered groves in greenness grew
Bathed still in childhood's morning dew
Along whose bowers of beauty swept
Whatever Memory's mourners wept
Sweet faces which the charnel kept
Young gentle eyes which long had slept
And while the gazer leaned to trace
More near some dear familiar face
He wept to find the vision flown
A phantom and a dream alone. !
Note 1. Adventurer: Captain John Smith.
Note 2. Agioochook: Mt. Washington
Note 3. Smile of Heaven: Lake Winnipisaukee.
Note 4. Captain Smith gave to the promontory now called Cape Ann the name of Tragabizanda.
Source: The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier. Household edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Co. 1892. Image Credit: American Rivers and Merrimack River Watershed Council