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                   [Illustration: (Frontispiece)

           PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady, 1864]




                                The
                           Poets' Lincoln

                      TRIBUTES IN VERSE TO THE
                         MARTYRED PRESIDENT


                           _Selected by_

                         OSBORN H. OLDROYD

          AUTHOR OF "THE ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN"
                AND EDITOR OF THE "WORDS OF LINCOLN"

                  _With many portraits of Lincoln,
                      illustrations of events
                         in his life, etc._


                     PUBLISHED BY THE EDITOR AT
                   "THE HOUSE WHERE LINCOLN DIED"

                         WASHINGTON, D. C.

                                1915


                          Copyright 1915,
                        by OSBORN H. OLDROYD




ACKNOWLEDGMENT


The Editor is most grateful to the various authors who have willingly
given their consent to the use of their respective poems in the
compilation of this volume. It has been a somewhat difficult problem,
not only to select the more appropriate productions, but also to find
the names of their authors, for in his Lincoln collection there are
many hundreds of poems which have appeared from time to time in
magazines, newspapers and other productions, some of which are
accompanied by more than one name as author of the same poem. In a
number of instances it has been difficult to ascertain the name of the
actual owner of the copyright, the poems having been printed in so
many forms without the copyright mark attached.

The Editor in particular extends his grateful acknowledgment to the
Houghton Mifflin Company for permission to reprint the "Emancipation
Group" by John G. Whittier; the "Life Mask" by Richard Watson Gilder;
"The Hand of Lincoln" by Clarence Stedman; "Commemoration Ode" by
James Russell Lowell, and the "Gettysburg Address" by Bayard Taylor;
to Charles Scribner's Sons for two "Lincoln" poems by Richard Henry
Stoddard; and to the J. B. Lippincott Company for the poem "Lincoln"
by George Henry Boker.

The Editor is also grateful to Dr. Marion Mills Miller for his
contribution of the introduction and a poem specially written for the
collection, and also for assistance in the editorial work.




FOREWORD


No great man has ever been spoken of with such tender expressions of
high regard as has been Abraham Lincoln. Especially is this true of the
tributes of esteem made by the poets to his memory. It is therefore
desirable that these should be preserved for future generations, and at
this time, the fiftieth anniversary of his untimely death, it is
peculiarly proper that they should be presented to the public.

Although they are chiefly the productions of American authors, quite a
number are from the pens of appreciative citizens of other countries.
From the thousand of meritorious poems which have been written about
Lincoln, the compiler, after serious consideration, has selected those
within as appearing to be gems; although there were others which he
would have been glad to include if space permitted.

The poems and illustrations are arranged largely in the chronological
order of their application to the events in the life of Lincoln. The
intense sympathy and warm appreciation portrayed therein for our
Martyred President, as well as their artistic merit assure the poems
a sacred place in the heart of every patriotic American.

The large number of selected portraits and illustrations of events
connected with his life, service, death and burial, with brief
sketches of authors of the following poems, also forms a compilation
of rich material for all readers of Lincoln literature.

The object in publishing this compilation is to assist in preserving
the collection of memorials now contained in the house in which
Lincoln died, 516 Tenth Street, Washington, D. C.

The volume will be sent postpaid by the Editor at the above address,
upon receipt of its price, $1.00.

                                                  OSBORN H. OLDROYD.

  Washington, D. C., September twelve,
    Nineteen hundred and fifteen.




CONTENTS

                                                                 PAGE
  INTRODUCTION--The Poetic Spirit of Lincoln, by Marion Mills
        Miller.................................................... v
    MY CHILDHOOD'S HOME I SEE AGAIN, by Abraham Lincoln.......... vi
    BUT HERE'S AN OBJECT MORE OF DREAD, by Abraham Lincoln..... viii
    OH, WHY SHOULD THE SPIRIT OF MORTAL BE PROUD? By William
        Knox..................................................... ix
    SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG (in verse form), by Abraham Lincoln... xiii
    SOLILOQUY OF KING CLAUDIUS, by William Shakespeare......... xvii
  LINCOLN, by Julia Ward Howe.................................... 14
  THE GREAT OAK, by Bennett Chapple.............................. 15
  LINCOLN, by Noah Davis......................................... 17
  THE BIRTH OF LINCOLN, by George W. Crofts...................... 19
  MENDELSSOHN, DARWIN, LINCOLN, by Clarence E. Carr.............. 20
  THE NATAL DAY OF LINCOLN, by James Phinney Baxter.............. 22
  NANCY HANKS, by Harriet Monroe................................. 25
  LINCOLN THE LABORER, by Richard Henry Stoddard................. 29
  A PEACEFUL LIFE