‘HE IS NOT FALLEN.’
by John Greenleaf Whittier
Not Fallen! No! as well the tall And pillared Allegheny fall— As well Ohio's giant tide Roll backward on its mighty track As he, Columbia's hope and pride The slandered and sorely tried, In his triumphant course turn back.
He is not Fallen! Seek to bind The chainless and unbidden wind; Oppose the torrent's headlong course, And turn aside the whirlwind's force But deem not that the might mind Will cower before the blast of hate, Or quail at dark and causeless ill. For though all else be desolate, As Marius 'mid the ruins still.
He is not Fallen! Every breeze That wander's o'er Columbia's bosom, From wild Penobcot's forest trees, From ocean shore, from inland seas, Or where the rich Magnolia's blossom Floats, snow-like, on the sultry wind, Is booming onward on his ear, A homage to his lofty mind— A meed the falling never find, A praise which Patriots only hear.
Star of the West! a million eyes Are turning gladly unto him; The shrine of old idolatries Before his kindling light grows dim! And men awake as from a dream, Or meteors dazzling betray; And bow before his purer beam, The earnest of a better day.
All Hail! the hour is hastening on When, vainly tried by Slander's flame, Columbia shall behold her son Unharmed, without a laurel gone, As from flames of Babylon The angel-guarded triad came! The Slanderer shall be silent then, His spell shall leave the minds of men, And higher glory wait upon The Western Patriot's future fame.
Henry Clay—“HE IS NOT FALLEN.”, by J. G. Whittier, Supplement to the Connecticut Courant, Hartford, Saturday, November 12, 1842, Vol. VII, No. 23.(PDF)
‘HE IS NOT FALLEN’†, by J. G. Whittier in The Life and Public Services of Henry Clay, Down to 1848, by Epes Sargent, 1855 (PDF)
†“Incited by a spirited article thus entitled by George D. Prentice in his Louisville Journal.”
For discussion of this poem see: Whittier's Apostrophe to Clay, The Cyclopædia Of Anecdotes Of Literature And The Fine Arts, by Arvine Kaslitt, 1851. (PDF)