POET of every soul that grieves O'er death untimely: whose lament Lights up the farthest Dark, and leaves A bow across the heavens bent: Dead in an upper room doth lie A nation's hero; can it be Thy ear too faintly hears the cry The West wind utters to the sea? Thy Concord paean may have caught Glow from an elder Garfield's name: What fitter aureole could be sought For such a son than such a flame! Bard of the Human: since we yearn For that one manly heart in vain, Forgive the reverent eyes that turn Toward the low stream in Concord plain. Warned by the favoring touch of Death, Thy @3Nunc Dimittis@1 thou hast sung; No more the thunder's stormy breath Shall sweep the lyre with lightnings strung. And yet, for him, remains -- unsigned, Unspoken -- all thy noble praise, When (port more worth the cruise!) thou find His sail beyond the final haze; But us? ..... O Seer, to whose gift Looms large the Future's better part, What other prophet voice shall lift This burden from the people's heart! |