The Poets' Lincoln Part 28

_Written for the Lincoln Memorial Alb.u.m, by Eugene J. Hall, 1882._

O honored name, revered and undecaying, Engraven on each heart, O soul sublime!

That, like a planet through the heavens straying, Outlives the wreck of time!

O rough, strong soul, your n.o.ble self-possession Is unforgotten. Still your work remains.

You freed from bondage and from vile oppression A race in clanking chains.

O furrowed face, beloved by all the nation!

O tall gaunt form, to memory fondly dear!

O firm, bold hand, our strength and our salvation!

O heart that knew no fear!

Lincoln, your manhood shall survive forever, Shedding a fadeless halo round your name; Urging men on, with wise and strong endeavor, To bright and honest fame!

Through years of care, to rest and joy a stranger, You saw complete the work you had begun, Thoughtless of threats, nor heeding death or danger, You toiled till all was done.

You freed the bondman from his iron master, You broke the strong and cruel chains he wore, You saved the Ship of State from foul disaster And brought her safe to sh.o.r.e.

You fell! An anxious nation's hopes seemed blighted, While millions shuddered at your dreadful fall; But _G.o.d is good_! His wondrous hand has righted And reunited all.

You fell, but in your death you were victorious; To moulder in the tomb your form has gone, While through the world your great soul grows more glorious As years go gliding on!

All hail, great Chieftain! Long will sweetly cl.u.s.ter A thousand memories round your sacred name, Nor time, nor death shall dim the spotless l.u.s.ter That shines upon your fame.

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

By Vinnie Ream, rotunda of the Capitol, Washington, D. C.]

Samuel Francis Smith, clergyman, born in Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts, October 21, 1808. Attended the Boston Latin School in 1820-5, and was graduated at Harvard in 1829 and at Andover Theological Seminary in 1832. Was ordained to the ministry of the Baptist Church at Waterville, Maine, in 1834, where he occupied pastorates from 1834 until 1842, and at Newton, Ma.s.sachusetts, 1842 to 1854. Was professor of languages in Waterville College while residing in that city, and there he also received the degree of D.D. in 1854.

He has done a large amount of literary work, mainly in the line of hymnology, his most popular composition being our national hymn, _My Country, 'Tis of Thee_, which was written while he was a theological student, and first sung at a children's celebration in the Park Street Church, Boston, July 4, 1832. _The Morning Light is Breaking_, was also written at the same place and time. His cla.s.smate, Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his reunion poem ent.i.tled _The Boys_, thus refers to him:

"And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith; Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith!

But he chanted a song for the brave and the free-- Just read on his medal, 'My Country, of Thee!'"

The following poem was written expressly for the exercises held on the Nineteenth Anniversary of President Lincoln's death, at his tomb, Springfield, Illinois, April 15, 1884.

THE TOMB OF LINCOLN

Grandeur and glory await around the bed Where sleeps in lowly peace the ill.u.s.trious dead; He rose a meteor, upon wondering men, But rose in strength, never to set again.

A king of men, though born in lowly state, A man sincerely good and n.o.bly great; Tender, but firm; faithful and kind, and true, The Nation's choice, the Nation's Saviour, too; When Liberty and Truth shall reign for evermore, From Oregon to Florida's perpetual May, From Shasta's awful peak to Ma.s.sachusetts Bay,-- Then our children's children, by the cottage door, In the schoolroom, from the pulpit, at the bar, Shall look up to thee as to a beacon star, And deduce the lesson from thy life and death, That the patriot's lofty courage and the Christian's faith Conquer honors that outweigh ambition's gaudiest prize, Triumph o'er the grave, and open the gates of Paradise.

Schooled through life's early hardships to endure, To raise the oppressed, to save and shield the poor; Prudent in counsel, honest in debate, Patient to hear and judge, patient to wait; The calm, the wise, the witty and the proved, Whom millions honored, and whom millions loved; Swayed by no baleful l.u.s.t of pride or power, The shining pageants of the pa.s.sing hour,

Led by no scheming arts, no selfish aim, Ambitious for no pomp, nor wealth, nor fame, No planning hypocrite, no pliant tool, A high-born patriot, of Heaven's n.o.blest school; Cool and unshaken in the maddest storm, For in the clouds he traced the Almighty's form; Worn with the weary heart and aching head, Worse than the picket, with his ceaseless tread,

He kept--as bound by some resistless fate-- His broad, strong hand upon the helm of State; Nor turned, in fear, his heart or hope away, Till on the field his tent a ruin lay.

His tent, a ruin; but the owner's name Stands on the pinnacle of human fame, Inscribed in lines of light, and nations see, Through him, the people's life and liberty.

What high ideas, what n.o.ble acts he taught!

To make men free in life, and limb, and thought, To rise, to soar, to scorn the oppressor's rod, To live in grander life, to live for G.o.d; To stand for justice, freedom and the right, To dare the conflict, strong in G.o.d's own might; The methods taught by Him, by him were tried, And he, to conscience true, a martyr died.

As the great sun pursues his heavenly way And fills with life and joy the livelong day, Till, the full journey, in glory dressed, He seeks his crimson couch beneath the west; So, with his labor done, our hero sleeps; Above his tomb a ransomed Nation weeps; And grateful paeans o'er his ashes rise-- Dear is his fame--his glory never dies.

Bring flowers, fresh flowers, bring plumes with nodding crests, To wreath the tomb where our great hero rests; Bring pipe and tabret, eloquence and song, And sound the loving tribute, loud and long; A Nation bows, and mourns his honored name, A Nation proudly keeps his deathless fame; Let vale and rock, and hill, and land, and sea His memory swell--the anthem of the free.

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

On the State Capitol Grounds at Lincoln, Nebraska.

Unveiled September 2, 1912. Daniel Chester French, sculptor]

John Townsend Trowbridge, born September 18, 1827, in Ogden, New York.

He lived the ordinary life of a country boy, going to school six months in the year till he was fourteen, after which he had to work on the farm in summer. His books had more interest to him than his work, and he managed to learn more out of school than in it. At sixteen he wrote articles in verse and prose for magazines and journals. He was a contributor to the _Atlantic Monthly_.

During the great rebellion, he wrote several stories of the war: _The Drummer Boy_, 1863, and _The Three Scouts_, 1865. On the return of peace he spent some four months in the princ.i.p.al southern States, for the purpose of gaining accurate views of the condition of society there after the war. He published the result of these observations June, 1866, in a volume ent.i.tled, _The South_. A collected edition of his poems was published in 1869, ent.i.tled _The Vagabonds, and Other Poems_.

LINCOLN

Heroic soul, in homely garb half hid, Sincere, sagacious, melancholy, quaint; What he endured, no less than what he did, Has reared his monument, and crowned him saint.

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

Burlington, Wisconsin. George E. Ganiere, sculptor Unveiled October 13, 1913]

Kinahan Cornwallis was born in London, England, December 24, 1839.

Entered British Colonial Civil Service; two years at Melbourne, Australia. Located in New York in 1860, one of the editors and correspondent of the _Herald_. Accompanied the Prince of Wales on his American tour. Admitted to the New York bar in 1863; financial editor and general editorial writer of _New York Herald_, 1860-69. Editor and proprietor of _The Knickerbocker Magazine_, afterward of _The Albion_.

Since 1886 editor and proprietor _Wall Street Daily Investigator_, now _Wall Street Daily Investor_. Author of _Howard Plunkett_ (a novel); an Australian poem, 1857. The _New Eldorado, or British Columbia_ (Travels); _Two Journeys to j.a.pan_; _A Panorama of the New World_; _Wreck and Ruin, or Modern Society_ (novel); _My Life and Adventures_ (story), 1859, also of many other histories and novels. Among his poet productions are _The Song of America and Columbus_, 1892; _The Conquest of Mexico and Peru_, 1893; _The War for the Union, or the Duel Between North and South_, 1899.