 | [Poems by Cary in] The Poetical Works Of Alice and Phoebe Cary |  |
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
FOULLY ASSASSINATED, APRIL, 1865.—INSCRIBED TO PUNCH.
No glittering chaplet brought from other lands!
As in his life, this man, in death, is ours;
His own loved prairies o'er his “gaunt gnarled hands”
Have fitly drawn their sheet of summer flowers!
As in his life, this man, in death, is ours;
His own loved prairies o'er his “gaunt gnarled hands”
Have fitly drawn their sheet of summer flowers!
What need hath he now of a tardy crown,
His name from mocking jest and sneer to save?
When every ploughman turns his furrow down
As soft as though it fell upon his grave.
His name from mocking jest and sneer to save?
When every ploughman turns his furrow down
As soft as though it fell upon his grave.
He was a man whose like the world again
Shall never see, to vex with blame or praise;
The landmarks that attest his bright, brief reign
Are battles, not the pomps of gala-days!
Shall never see, to vex with blame or praise;
The landmarks that attest his bright, brief reign
Are battles, not the pomps of gala-days!
187
The grandest leader of the grandest war
That ever time in history gave a place;
What were the tinsel flattery of a star
To such a breast! or what a ribbon's grace!
That ever time in history gave a place;
What were the tinsel flattery of a star
To such a breast! or what a ribbon's grace!
'T is to th' man, and th' man's honest worth,
The nation's loyalty in tears upsprings:
Through him the soil of labor shines henceforth
High o'er the silken broideries of kings.
The nation's loyalty in tears upsprings:
Through him the soil of labor shines henceforth
High o'er the silken broideries of kings.
The mechanism of external forms—
The shrifts that courtiers put their bodies through,
Were alien ways to him—his brawny arms
Had other work than posturing to do!
The shrifts that courtiers put their bodies through,
Were alien ways to him—his brawny arms
Had other work than posturing to do!
Born of the people, well he knew to grasp
The wants and wishes of the weak and small;
Therefore we hold him with no shadowy clasp—
Therefore his name is household to us all.
The wants and wishes of the weak and small;
Therefore we hold him with no shadowy clasp—
Therefore his name is household to us all.
Therefore we love him with a love apart
From any fawning love of pedigree—
His was the royal soul and mind and heart—
Not the poor outward shows of royalty.
From any fawning love of pedigree—
His was the royal soul and mind and heart—
Not the poor outward shows of royalty.
Forgive us then, O friends, if we are slow
To meet your recognition of his worth—
We 're jealous of the very tears that flow
From eyes that never loved a humble hearth.
To meet your recognition of his worth—
We 're jealous of the very tears that flow
From eyes that never loved a humble hearth.
| [Poems by Cary in] The Poetical Works Of Alice and Phoebe Cary | |