Bay of Seven Islands, and other poems: Part 7 From Volume I of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier

In Short

This collection of narrative poems and legends explores the stark landscapes of the northeastern coast, historical persecutions of Quakers, and folkloric encounters with the supernatural. Centering largely on moral courage, steadfast love, and spiritual devotion, the verses travel from the frozen bays of Labrador to old New England villages and European legends. Through tales of tragic romance, mystical interventions, and abandoned homesteads, the volume preserves the oral traditions, colonial struggles, and deep-rooted moral convictions of its regional heritage, enduring through its musical cadence and empathetic observation of human endurance.

The Story

The collection opens along the Merrimac valley and stretches toward the desolate, ice-bound shores of Labrador, where a young skipper navigates his schooner Breeze to the remote Seven Islands Bay. There, he wins the love of Marguerite, despite the harsh disapproval of her mother and the local priest. He arranges a midnight elopement, but when he returns, Marguerite is locked away by her mother. Her twin sister, Suzette, who bears a small scar on her forehead, slips away to take Marguerite's place in the waiting skiff. Out on the water, the skipper discovers the deception when he touches the maiden's hair and feels Suzette's scar. Grief-stricken and furious, he sails back to the bay, only to find that Marguerite has died of a broken heart, leaving him to sail the mournful seas forever as a ghostly apparition.

From these cold northern waters, the journey shifts to familiar New England soil, visiting the Wishing Bridge of Marblehead, where two schoolgirls voice their childhood aspirations. Years later, they cross paths again: one has become a humble farm-wife ruling a small homestead with loving service, while the other remains bound to her home caring for a sick mother, yet travels the entire world through the magic of books and imagination.

The collection also confronts the dark chapters of colonial history, tracking the brutal persecution of Quaker women—Anne Colman, Mary Tomkins, and Alice Ambrose—who are whipped at the cart-tail through snowy New England towns under Major Waldron’s cruel warrant. Their suffering finds a temporary halt when the courageous Justice Pike and the Salisbury constable flatly refuse to enforce the bloody order, upholding human pity above oppressive law. Similar exiles, such as Macy and the Southwicks, face banishment from Massachusetts under pain of death, yet find sanctuary and freedom in tolerant lands.

Other mystical threads weave through the volume, from a Roman pope who unwittingly entertains the Lord in the guise of a beggar to an Algonquin legend where a fasting youth perishes in a trial-lodge and transforms into a robin to herald the spring. In European folklore, young John Deitrich confronts the trolls of Rugen Island, snatching the red magic cap of a brown dwarf to force open the glass door of the underground elfin world and rescue his long-lost playmate Lisbeth from a glittering, sunless captivity. Across these varied landscapes, the poems map a moral universe where cruelty is answered by grace, sorrow by steadfast faith, and human endurance by quiet redemption.

How It Unfolds

• The voyage begins — A handsome young skipper steers his fishing schooner away from southern warmth toward the desolate, ice-locked coast of Labrador. He drops anchor at Seven Islands Bay, where he meets twin sisters and falls deeply in love with Marguerite.
• A midnight deception — Bound by a strict mother and a stern priest, the lovers plan a secret escape under cover of darkness using a red kerchief signal. However, Marguerite is locked in her room, and her twin sister Suzette secretly takes her place in the waiting skiff.
• A tragic discovery — Out on the misty sea, the skipper smooths his companion's hair and discovers the hidden scar belonging to Suzette instead of Marguerite. Returning to the bay in despair, he finds that the gentle Marguerite has died of grief.
• Childhood wishes fulfilled — At the Marblehead bridge, two schoolgirls voice contrasting dreams of ruling a kingdom or seeing the wide world. Decades later, they meet again to realize that life grants these wishes in unexpected ways through home service and imagination.
• The path of persecution — Three Quaker women endure a brutal winter whipping tied to a cart-tail through Massachusetts towns under an unforgiving magistrate's warrant. Their agonizing journey ends in Salisbury, where a compassionate constable and Justice Pike finally shatter the cruel order.
• Beneath the elfin hills — Young John Deitrich watches the brown dwarfs dance on Rugen Island and captures their leader's magical red cap. Using the cap as leverage, he descends into the glittering under-land to rescue his childhood friend Lisbeth.

The People

The collection features distinct figures driven by starkly different desires and obstacles. Marguerite wants to share her life with the foreign skipper, but faces the unyielding opposition of her mother and a local priest, ultimately ending her days in tragic isolation and death. Her twin, Suzette, shares her affection for the sailor and attempts a daring deception to join him, leaving her trapped in a misplaced romance and enduring the wrath of both the skipper and her family. John Deitrich seeks his long-lost childhood playmate, Lisbeth, overcoming his fear of the subterranean trolls of Rugen to break into their glittering underground realm and restore her to the green fields of home. Lisbeth herself wants nothing more than to escape her sunless elfin captivity and hear the vesper bells of her youth once more. In historical narratives, figures like Justice Pike and the Salisbury constable want mercy and justice to prevail over religious tyranny, standing firm against Major Waldron's cruel warrants to protect persecuted Quakers like Anne Colman, Mary Tomkins, and Alice Ambrose from brutal whippings. Pope Gregory, starting as a humble monk who gives away his mother's silver cup to a fainting beggar, rises to the papacy and learns humility when the Lord returns in disguise to reward his charity.

In Its Own Voice

Reflecting the cold northern settings of its title poem, the collection captures the lonely expanse of the Canadian coast where the romance unfolds.

Through the Northern Gulf and the misty screen Of the isles of Mingan and Madeleine, St. Paul's and Blanc Sablon, The little Breeze sailed on,

Evoking the stark realities of early New England colonial justice, the verses recall the harsh punishments inflicted upon religious dissenters.

Bared to the waist, for the north wind's grip And keener sting of the constable's whip, The blood that followed each hissing blow Froze as it sprinkled the winter snow.

Describing the serene reclamation of nature over human industry, the collection contrasts industrial ruin with organic persistence.

No more a toiler at the wheel, It wanders at its will; Nor dam nor pond is left to tell Where once was Birchbrook mill.

What It's Really About

The poems delve deeply into the interplay between human conscience, spiritual devotion, and the natural world. They examine how moral courage triumphs over institutional cruelty, whether through colonial magistrates defying unjust laws or medieval saints practicing radical charity. Another central current explores the ghosts of the past—both literal spirits haunting abandoned homesteads and ruined mills, and the emotional echoes of lost time, unfulfilled youth, and vanished communities. Ultimately, the collection argues that true freedom and redemption reside in simple endurance, empathy, and steadfast faith, contrasting the artificial constructs of human bigotry with the enduring grace of nature and divine compassion.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate nineteenth-century narrative verse, historical folklore, and melancholic coastal atmospheres will find a quiet, resonant beauty in these pages. Reading Whittier feels like sitting by a hearth while an old storyteller recounts regional legends, blending rhythmic ballad meters with a deep moral seriousness. While contemporary audiences may occasionally navigate period attitudes toward historical conflicts, archaic diction, or Victorian pacing, the emotional core of the poems remains entirely accessible and deeply moving. The collection offers a restorative pause from modern haste, inviting profound reflection on quiet landscapes, abandoned homesteads, and the enduring power of human compassion. It stays with you long after closing the book through its haunting imagery—a ghostly schooner drifting past bleak Labrador cliffs, a red magic cap fluttering on an elfin hill, or a warm sunset falling upon the bowed heads of persecuted believers.