Classic Poem

No myrtle can obliterate a name
Carved not on stone, but in a Nation's heart;
This is your glory, Lincoln, and your fame —
None will forget how you rehearsed your part
(Oh, did you know, oh did you even then
Know that was but the prologue to the play?
That brother would slay brother soon again
Upon a vaster stage . . . a later day?)
A house divided cannot stand, you said;
You knew that slavery held the master slave —
That freedom is man's sustenance and bread;
Your voice still pleads beneath the vaulted grave. . . .
You cannot sleep till man has understood
That peace is Universal Brotherhood!

No myrtle can obliterate a name
Carved not on stone, but in a Nation's heart;
This is your glory, Lincoln, and your fame —
None will forget how you rehearsed your part
(Oh, did you know, oh did you even then
Know that was but the prologue to the play?
That brother would slay brother soon again
Upon a vaster stage . . . a later day?)
A house divided cannot stand, you said;
You knew that slavery held the master slave —
That freedom is man's sustenance and bread;
Your voice still pleads beneath the vaulted grave. . . .
You cannot sleep till man has understood
That peace is Universal Brotherhood!