The Poets' Lincoln Part 27

Humbly spake she: "I mourn for his folly, His weakness, his fall"; Proudly spake she: "he is not a TRAITOR, And I love him through all!"

Then the great man, whose heart had been shaken By a little babe's cry; Answered soft, taking counsel of mercy, "This man shall not die!"

Why, he heard from the dungeons, the rice-fields, The dark holds of ships; Every faint, feeble cry which oppression Smothered down on men's lips.

In her furnace, the centuries had welded Their fetter and chain; And like withes, in the hands of his purpose, He snapped them in twain.

Who can be what he was to the people; What he was to the State?

Shall the ages bring to us another As good and as great?

Our hearts with their anguish are broken, Our wet eyes are dim; For us is the loss and the sorrow, The triumph for him!

For, ere this, face to face with his Father Our Martyr hath stood; Giving into his hand the white record With its great seal of blood!

That the hand which reached out of the darkness Hath taken the whole?

Yea, the arm and the head of the people-- The heart and the soul!

And that heart, o'er whose dread awful silence A nation has wept; Was the truest, and gentlest, and sweetest A man ever kept!

[Ill.u.s.tration: STATUE OF LINCOLN

By Augustus Saint Gaudens, in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois]

On the 22nd of October, 1887, this statue by Saint Gaudens was unveiled, Mr. Eli Bates donating $40,000 for that purpose. There is a vast oval of cut stone, thirty by sixty feet, the interior fashioned to form a cla.s.sic bench, and the statue stands on a stone pedestal.

The sculptor represents him as an orator, just risen from his chair, which is shown behind him, and waiting for the audience to become quiet before beginning his speech. The att.i.tude is that always a.s.sumed by Lincoln at the beginning--one hand behind him, and the other grasping the lapel of his coat. He appears the very incarnation of rugged grandeur which held the master mind of this age.

Charles Graham Halpin (Miles O'Reilly) was born near Oldcastle, County of Meath, Ireland, November 20, 1829. Graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1846. He entered the field of journalism as a profession and soon gained a reputation in England. Came to New York in 1852 and secured employment with the _Herald_, was later connected with other papers. Enlisted in April, 1861, and became lieutenant of Colonel Corcoran's 69th Regiment, rising to the rank of brigadier-general. He died in New York City, August 3, 1868.

LINCOLN

He filled the Nation's eyes and heart, An honored, loved, familiar name; So much a brother that his fame Seemed of our lives a common part.

His towering figure, sharp and spare, Was with such nervous tension strung, As if on each strained sinew swung The burden of a people's care.

His changing face, what pen can draw-- Pathetic, kindly, droll or stern; And with a glance so quick to learn The inmost truth of all he saw.

Pride found no place to sp.a.w.n Her fancies in his busy mind.

His worth, like health or air, could find No just appraisal till withdrawn.

He was his country's--not his own; He had no wish but for the weak, Nor for himself could think or feel, But as a laborer for her throne.

Her flag upon the heights of power-- Stainless and una.s.sayed to place, To this one end his earnest face Was bent through every burdened hour.

But done the battle--won the strife; When torches light his vaulted tomb, Broad gems flash out and crowns illume The clay-cold brow undecked in life.

O, loved and lost! Thy patient toil Had robed our cause in victory's light; Our country stood redeemed and bright, With not a slave on all her soil.

'Mid peals of bells and cannon's bark, And shouting streets with flags abloom, Sped the shrill arrow of thy doom, And, in an instant, all was dark!

A martyr to the cause of man, His blood is Freedom's Eucharist, And in the world's great hero list His name shall lead the van.

Yes! ranked on Faith's white wings unfurled In Heaven's pure light, of him we say, "He fell on the self-same day A Greater died to save the world."

[Ill.u.s.tration: TABLET AT PHILADELPHIA

Unveiled February 21, 1903]

He who seeks the embodiment of the genius of the Union finds it in the apotheosis of the Great Emanc.i.p.ator. There, under the arching skies he stands, erect, serene, resplendent; beneath his feet the broken shackles of a race redeemed; upon his brow the diadem of liberty with law, while around and behind him rise up, as an eternal guard of honor, the great army of the Republic.

In the belief that from the martyr's bier as from the battlefield of right it is but one step to paradise, may we not, on days like this, draw back the veil that separates from our mortal gaze the phantom squadrons as they pa.s.s again in grand review before their "Martyr President."--_From an address by Hiram F. Stevens, read before the Minnesota Commandery of the Loyal Legion._

THE MARTYR PRESIDENT

In solid platoons of steel, Under heaven's triumphant arch, The long lines break and wheel, And the order is "Forward, March!"

The colors ripple o'erhead, The drums roll up to the sky, And with martial time and tread The regiments all pa.s.s by-- The ranks of the faithful dead Meeting their president's eye.

March on, your last brave mile!

Salute him, star and lace!

Form 'round him, rank and file, And look on the kind, rough face.

But the quaint and homely smile Has a glory and a grace It has never known erstwhile, Never in time or s.p.a.ce.

Close 'round him, hearts of pride!

Press near him, side by side!

For he stands there not alone.

For the holy right he died, And Christ, the crucified, Waits to welcome his own.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN