# The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier/The Hero

THE HERO
The hero of the incident related in this poem was Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, the well-known philanthropist, who when a young man volunteered his aid in the Greek struggle for independence.
“Oh for a knight like Bayard, Without reproach or fear; My light glove on his casque of steel, My love-knot on his spear!
“Oh for the white plume floating Sad Zutphen’s field above,— The lion heart in battle, The woman’s heart in love!
“Oh that man once more were manly, Woman’s pride, and not her scorn: That once more the pale young mother Dared to boast ‘a man is born’!
“But now life’s slumberous current No sun-bowed cascade wakes; No tall, heroic manhood The level dulness breaks.
“Oh for a knight like Bayard, Without reproach or fear! My light glove on his casque of steel, My love-knot on his spear!”
Then I said, my own heart throbbing To the time her proud pulse beat, “Life hath its regal natures yet, True, tender, brave, and sweet!
“Smile not, fair unbeliever! One man, at least, I know, Who might wear the crest of Bayard Or Sidney’s plume of snow.
“Once, when over purple mountains Died away the Grecian sun, And the far Cyllenian ranges Paled and darkened, one by one,—
“Fell the Turk, a bolt of thunder, Cleaving all the quiet sky, And against his sharp steel lightnings Stood the Suliote but to die.
“Woe for the weak and halting! The crescent blazed behind A curving line of sabres, Like fire before the wind!
“Last to fly, and first to rally, Rode he of whom I speak, When, groaning in his bridle-path, Sank down a wounded Greek.
“With the rich Albanian costume Wet with many a ghastly stain, Gazing on earth and sky as one Who might not gaze again!
“He looked forward to the mountains, Back on foes that never spare, Then flung him from his saddle, And placed the stranger there.
“ ‘Allah! hu!’ Through flashing sabres, Through a stormy hail of lead, The good Thessalian charger Up the slopes of olives sped.
“Hot spurred the turbaned riders; He almost felt their breath, Where a mountain stream rolled darkly down Between the hills and death.
“One brave and manful struggle,— He gained the solid land, And the cover of the mountains, And the carbines of his band!”
“It was very great and noble,” Said the moist-eyed listener then, “But one brave deed makes no hero; Tell me what he since hath been!”
“Still a brave and generous manhood, Still an honor without stain, In the prison of the Kaiser, By the barricades of Seine.
“But dream not helm and harness The sign of valor true; Peace hath higher tests of manhood Than battle ever knew.
“Wouldst know him now? Behold him, The Cadmus of the blind, Giving the dumb lip language, The idiot-clay a mind.
“Walking his round of duty Serenely day by day, With the strong man’s hand of labor And childhood’s heart of play.
“True as the knights of story, Sir Lancelot and his peers, Brave in his calm endurance As they in tilt of spears.
“As waves in stillest waters, As stars in noonday skies, All that wakes to noble action In his noon of calmness lies.
“Wherever outraged Nature Asks word or action brave, Wherever struggles labor, Wherever groans a slave,—
“Wherever rise the peoples, Wherever sinks a throne, The throbbing heart of Freedom finds An answer in his own.
“Knight of a better era, Without reproach or fear! Said I not well that Bayards And Sidneys still are here?”