. The poets' Lincoln : tributes in verse to the martyred President. to doHis work—and perish too! Not by the weary cares of state,The endless tasks, which will not wait, Which, often done in vain, Must yet be done again; Not in the dark, wild tide of war,Which rose so high, and rolled so far, Sweeping from sea to sea In awful anarchy;— Four fateful years of mortal strife,Which slowly drained the Nations life,(Yet, for each drop that ranThere sprang an armed man!) THE POETS LINCOLN 195 Not then;—but when by measures meet— By victory, and by defeat, By courage, patience, skill,The peoples fixed
. The poets' Lincoln : tributes in verse to the martyred President. to doHis work—and perish too! Not by the weary cares of state,The endless tasks, which will not wait, Which, often done in vain, Must yet be done again; Not in the dark, wild tide of war,Which rose so high, and rolled so far, Sweeping from sea to sea In awful anarchy;— Four fateful years of mortal strife,Which slowly drained the Nations life,(Yet, for each drop that ranThere sprang an armed man!) THE POETS LINCOLN 195 Not then;—but when by measures meet— By victory, and by defeat, By courage, patience, skill,The peoples fixed We will! Had pierced, had crushed rebellion dead—Without a hand, without a head:— At last, when all was well, He fell—O, how he fell! Tyrants have fallen by such as thou,And good hath followed,—may it now! (God lets bad instruments Produce the best events.) But he, the man we mourn today,No tyrant was; so mild a sway In one such weight who bore Was never known before! From Poems of Richard Henry Stoddard Copyright, 1880, by Charles Scribners L*J*- I —j£j THE POETS LINCOLN 197 WALT WHITMAN, born in West Hills, LongIsland, New York, May 31, 1819. He waseducated in the public schools of Brooklyn andNew York City. Learned the printing trade at whichhe worked during the summer and taught school inwinter. He made long pedestrian tours through theUnited States and even extended his tramps throughCanada. His chief work, Leaves of Grass, is a seriesof poems through which he earned the praise of someand the abuse of others. He visited the army when abrother was wounded and remained afterward as avolunteer nurse. Died 1892. 0 CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip isdone;The ship has weatherd every wrack, the prizewe sought is won;The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all ex-ulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel firm anddaring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red,Where on the deck my Captain lies, F
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