So the strange old man went singing,
    To the halls of royal splendor
  Scornful admonition bringing: 
      “In the wilds a voice am I! 
    Doubt not, dream not of surrender: 
  Forward, forward, never ceasing,
  Strength in spite of all increasing—­
      Slow and sure the hour draws nigh!

  With the stream, before the breezes
    Wouldst thou show thy strength, then teach it
  Both to conquer as it pleases—­
      Both are weaker than the grave. 
    Choose thy port, and steer to reach it! 
  Threatening rocks?  The rudder’s master;
  Turning back is sure disaster,
      And its end beneath the wave.”

  One was seen to blench in terror,
    Flushing first, then sudden paling: 
  “Who gave entrance—­whose the error
      Let this madman pass along? 
    All things show his wits are failing—­
  Shall he daze our people’s senses? 
  Prison him with sure defenses,
      Silence hold his silly song!”

  But the strange old man went singing
    Where within the tower they bound him—­
  Calm and clear his answer ringing: 
      “In the wilds a voice am I! 
    Though the people’s hate surround him,
  Must the prophet still endeavor,
  From his mission ceasing never—­
      Slow and sure the hour draws nigh!”

* * * * *

  THE OLD WASHERWOMAN[43] (1833)

  Among yon lines her hands have laden,
    A laundress with white hair appears,
  Alert as many a youthful maiden,
    Spite of her five-and-seventy years. 
  Bravely she won those white hairs, still
    Eating the bread hard toil obtain’d her,
  And laboring truly to fulfil
    The duties to which God ordain’d her.

  Once she was young and full of gladness;
    She loved and hoped, was woo’d and won;
  Then came the matron’s cares, the sadness
    No loving heart on earth may shun. 
  Three babes she bore her mate; she pray’d
    Beside his sick-bed; he was taken;
  She saw him in the churchyard laid,
    Yet kept her faith and hope unshaken.

  The task her little ones of feeding
    She met unfaltering from that hour;
  She taught them thrift and honest breeding,
    Her virtues were their worldly dower. 
  To seek employment, one by one,
    Forth with her blessing they departed,
  And she was in the world alone,
    Alone and old, but still high-hearted.

  With frugal forethought, self-denying,
    She gather’d coin and flax she bought,
  And many a night her spindle plying,
    Good store of fine-spun thread she wrought. 
  The thread was fashion’d in the loom;
    She brought it home, and calmly seated
  To work, with not a thought of gloom,
    Her decent grave-clothes she completed.