Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LINCOLN, by WENDELL PHILLIPS STAFFORD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LINCOLN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Say - if men asked for him - he has gone home
Last Line: "they have the power to will, the will to wait."
Subject(s): Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865); Presidents, United States


SAY -- if men asked for him -- he has gone home,
Home to the hearts of all that love their kind;
And they that seek him there, henceforth shall find
Their man of men -- in all men's hearts at home.
The Mother made him from her common loam,
And from her world-wide harvest filled his mind,
Poured by all paths, that from all quarters wind,
As in the old days all highways poured to Rome.
She said: "I make a universal man,
Warmed with all laughter, tempered with all tears,
Whose word and deed shall have the force of fate.
I made not seven in all, since time began,
Of men like these. They last a thousand years,
They have the power to will, the will to wait."





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