Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MAN OF PEACE, by BLISS CARMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MAN OF PEACE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What winter holiday is this?
Last Line: To paradise, -- to peace.
Subject(s): Holidays; Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865); Presidents, United States


WHAT winter holiday is this?
In Time's great calendar,
Marked in the rubric of the saints,
And with a soldier's star,
Here stands the name of one who lived
To serve the common weal,
With humor tender as a prayer
And honor firm as steel.

Born in the fulness of the days
Up from the teeming soil,
By the world-molten reared and schooled
In reverence and toil,
He stands the test of all life's best
Through play, defeat, or strain;
Never a moment was he found
Unlovable nor vain.

O South, bring all your chivalry;
And West, give all your heart;
And East, your old untarnished dreams
Of progress and of art!
Bid waste and war to be no more,
Bid wanton riot cease;
At your command give Lincoln's land
To Paradise, -- to peace.





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