 | Jones Very : The Complete Poems |  |
390
Finishing The Work
“Let us strive to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to do all which
may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.”
Second Inaugural Address of PRESIDENT LINCOLN
While men with ceaseless strife, in Church and State,
About the means of doing good contend;
The wounded man is left unto his fate,
And, in the means, forgotten is the end.
Lo, for the thousand years, the Church has striven
To guide the nations in their heavenward way;
But, by conflicting sects and dogmas riven,
Too oft, alas! her light has led astray.
And lo the State, still struggling to be free,
Oft wastes the precious years in wordy strife;
Forgetting the great end of Liberty,
And the great work of every nation's life;
To raise the low, instruct the darkened mind,
And live in lasting peace with all mankind.
Poem No. 811; c. December 1865
| Jones Very : The Complete Poems | |