LESSON 26 BARBARA FRIETCHIE

BARBARA FRIETCHIE

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807-1892), American poet; wrote poems directed against slavery.

UP from the meadows rich with corn,

Clear in the cool September morn,

The clustered spires of Frederick stand

Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.

Round about them orchards sweep,

Apple and peach tree fruited deep,

Fair as a garden of the Lord

To the eyes of the famished rebel horde.

On that pleasant morn of the early fall [1]

When Lee [2] marched over the mountain wall—

Over the mountains winding down,

Horse and foot into Frederick town.

Forty flags with their silver stars,

Forty flags with their crimson bars,

Flapped in the morning wind: the sun

Of noon looked down, and saw not one.

Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,

Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;

Bravest of all in Frederick town,

She took up the flag the men hauled down;

In her attic window [3] the staff she set,

To show that one heart was loyal yet.

Up the street came the rebel tread,

Stonewall Jackson [4] riding ahead.

Under his slouched hat left and right

He glanced; the old flag met his sight.

“Halt!”—the dust-brown ranks stood fast.

“Fire!”—out blazed the rifle-blast.

It shivered the window, pane and sash;

It rent the banner with seam and gash.

Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff

Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf;

She leaned far out on the window-sill,

And shook it forth with a royal will.

“Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,

But spare your country’s flag,” she said.

A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,

Over the face of the leader came;

The nobler nature within him stirred

To life at that woman’s deed and word:

“Who touches a hair of yon gray head

Dies like a dog! March on!” he said.

All day long through Frederick street

Sounded the tread of marching feet:

All day long that free flag tost

Over the heads of the rebel host.

Ever its torn folds rose and fell

On the loyal winds that loved it well;

And through the hill-gaps sunset light

Shone over it with a warm good-night.

Barbara Frietchie’s work is o’er,

And the Rebel rides on his raids [5] no more.

Honour to her! And let a tear

Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall’s bier [6] .

Over Barbara Frietchie’s grave,

Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!

Peace and order and beauty draw

Round thy symbol of light and law [7] ;

And ever the stars above look down

On thy stars below [8] in Frederick town.

—JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTLER

* * *

[1] early fall: Autumn season, so called from the fall of the leaves.

[2] Lee: Robert Edward Lee, general in the army of the Southern States during the American Civil War.

[3] attic window: Window on the top story of a house.

[4] Stonewall Jackson: Thomas Jonathan Jackson, another Confederate general in the American Civil War; nicknamed Stonewall on account of his firmness at the battle of Bull Run.

[5] raids: Plundering expeditions.

[6] bier: Here means the grave.

[7] symbol of light and law: The American flag.

[8] thy stars below: On the American flag—“the Stars and Stripes.”