Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1916-12-22
A Sweet Singer Vermont Loves.
Burlington Free Press.


Wendell Phillips Stafford, Vermont s
sweetest singer, has again touched q re-
sponsive chord in the hearts of every
son and daughter of the Green Noun
tain state in series of poems pub
lished under the general title, The Land
We Love. Judge Stafford has frequent
ly demonstrated his love and loyalty
for the state of his nativity. In the
volume before us he exemplifes his
patriotic devotion also to the nation
we all love.
The patriotic spirit of Judge Stat
ford IS muse finds expression in differ
ent selections in the volume, the most
noteworthy instance being the dramatic
ode to the Grand Army of the Repub-
lie. Nothing could be finer than the
tributes to the heroes of the sixties
which the author puts into the language
of the different personages imperson-
ated in the progress of the dramatic
development.
Giving personality and utterance to
famous Pennsylvania avenue, which
has seen so many professions passing
to and fro between the White House
and the Capitol, Judge Stafford, under
the heading, Voice of the Avenue, halls
the Grand Army of the Republic, the
opening stanza being as follows:
l have watched on this way for a hun
drcd years;
! have thrilled to a hundred thousand
cheers;
By me the millions have come and
Nothing like this have my eyes
looked onl
Are you a march or a masquerade
Thousands of gray boards limping
along,
Waking my echoes of conquering
song
Gallant old army without a gun,
Too feeble to fight, too plucky to rum
Then speaks the Voice of Columbia
at the sight of the veterans with the
following opening lines:
They are still the same in Columbia S
eyes.
Their trappings are altered, their
step may be strange,
In the sight of the mother they never
can change.
She tells them by signs no season de-
l know you, / know you, my old, brave
boys!
Few are We coming-few, we say
Only corporal s guard today
To the armies on armies that marched
away!
Your eyes are holden; look up and see.
Not there with you-they are here
with me.
At the end is heard the voice of one
singing the praises of our land for
which the brave soldiers of the sixties
offered their services and lives as
willing sacrifice, as well as her defend
ers of the future, the closing stanza
being as follows:
Ny country! My country! My country!
There is never a leaf that will fade,
There is never q Hover that will wither
In the garlands thy fingers will braid!
Their praise will be blown from the
mountains,
Their song will be sung by the sea!
Immortal, immortal my country,
The sons that shall perish for thee.
The dainty beauties of Judge Stat
is replete, can be judged from the fol-
lowing lines:
Dearcr, lady, and diviner,
Year by year you grow
Richer, truer, fairer, finer,
Sweeter ever so.
Not a shade of change or warning
Shall loves mirror show
Till the gracious golden morning
Ceases for thee to glow.
One catches something of the pathos
that aided Eugene Field to touch the
fountain of human hearts combined
with a fine spirit in the following lines
taken from the authors tribute to the
memory of little son:
Oh, paradox of misery!
For sudden sorrow smiled,
Seeing thou didst but pause
To be for aging hearts, the sweet,
immortal child.
Not thee, dear little lad, we lost not
thee;
But we have lost the man that never
was
And never was to be.
Vermont literature, which shines by
the side of that of many other states,
is made the richer by the works of
Judge Stafford, and Arthur F. Stone
of st. Johnsbury, the publisher, who
has put the public under obligation by
gathering these songs of our Vermont
singer, has preserved the fitness of
things by putting them in dainty