Quote#Homeland
Shoot, if you must, this old gray head
Quote byJohn Greenleaf Whittier · 1807–1892
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Barbara Frietchie (1863); reported in Diane Ravitch, The American Reader: words that moved a nation (2000), p. 259. The lines are based on an folkloric account of the real Barbara Fritchie, said to have made a similar challenge to Confederate invaders of Maryland during the American Civil War..
English (original)
Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag," she said.
— John Greenleaf Whittier
More from John Greenleaf Whittier
So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn Which once he wore; The glory from his gray hairs gone For evermore!
O, brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother; where pity dwells, the peace of God is there.
The windows of my soul I throw Wide open to the sun.
Press bravely onward! — not in vain Your generous trust in human kind; The good which bloodshed could not gain Your peaceful zeal shall find.
What is good looking, as Horace Smith remarks, but looking good? Be good, be womanly, be gentle,—generous in your sympathies, heedful of the well-being of all around you; and, my word for it, you will not lack kind words of admiration.
When faith is lost, when honor dies The man is dead!