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! 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. 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 galadays! 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! 'Tis to th' man, and th' man's honest worth, The nation's loyalty in tears up-springs; 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! 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. 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. 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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DARK-EYED GENTLEMAN by THOMAS HARDY THE MOUNTAIN ECHO by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ANNIVERSARIUM BAPTISMI (5) by JOSEPH BEAUMONT MY FLOWERS by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER FOR THE QUEEN MOTHER by JOHN BETJEMAN TO HELEN KELLER by CRAVEN LANGSTROTH BETTS TENNESSEE; PRIZE CENTENNIAL ODE (1896) by VIRGINIA FRAZER BOYLE |