Classic Poem

L INCOLN ! When men would name a man,
Just, unperturbed, magnanimous,
Tried in the lowest seat of all,
Tried in the chief seat of the house —

Lincoln! When men would name a man
Who wrought the great work of his age,
Who fought and fought the noblest fight,
And marshaled it from stage to stage,

Victorious, out of dusk and dark,
And into dawn and on till day,
Most humble when the paeans rang,
Least rigid when the enemy lay

Prostrated for his feet to tread —
This name of Lincoln will they name,
A name revered, a name of scorn,
Of scorn to sundry, not to fame.

Lincoln, the man who freed the slave;
Lincoln whom never self enticed;
Slain Lincoln, worthy found to die
A soldier of his Captain Christ.