THE LINCOLN TRADITION

IN

AMERICAN POETRY

BY

CELESTINE B. TEGEDER

A THESIS»

Submitted to the Faculty of The Creighton University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of English

OMAHA, 1941 Thesis Approved

By TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Introduction ...... i

Chapter

I. WALT WHITMAN When Lilaos Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d...... 1 0, Captain, ISy Captain!...... 3

II. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration...... 11

III. EDWIN MARKHAM Lincoln, the Man of the People...... 18

IV. EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON The Master...... 23

V. NICHOLAS VACIIEL LINDSAY Abraham Lincoln Whiles at Midnight ...... 29 The Litany of the Heroes...... 33

VI. EDGAR LEE MASTERS Autochthon...... 34

VII. JOHN GOULD FLETCHER Lincoln...... 38

VIII. STEPHEN VINCENT BENET John Brown's Body...... 43

IX. CONCLUSION...... 50

Bibliography 56 INTRODUCTION

New countries, such as our own United States, usually do not have a developed folk-lore nor an abundance of national legends.

It is only after centuries that ancient tales and certain heroic figures become a part of the literature of a race or nation.

United States history is rich in the names of outstanding characters and incidents on whioh to build such stories and even myths. We need only to read of the Colonial settlements, the

Revolutionary War, the settling of the West, etc., to see that since the very beginnings of our government there have been women and men who have been prominent because of their achievements on behalf of an ideal.

Names such as George ’Washington, Roger Williams, William

Penn, Benjamin Franklin, Dolly Madison, Barbara Frietchie,

U, S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln^ and Theodore Roosevelt are familiar to all of us because of the countless stories we have read and heard about them. Some of these tales have been in prose and some in poetry.

Of all the persons mentioned there is none who has been / the subject of more fiction, biography, drama, and poetry than

Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln has played a role that has endeared him to all humanity and has made him a popular subject for inspirational literature.

Here is one more honored than any other man while living, more revered when dying, and destined to be loved to the last syllable of recorded time. He has threefold great­ ness - great in life, great in death, great in the ii

history of the world. ^

Lincoln has been used times without number as the subject of American poetry. Although each poet has been motivated by something different, and though it is hard to say that it was one certain thing that appeals to all poets, it is well to review the life and character of Linooln to determine, at least in part, why above all others Lincoln has been so honored.

And the spell that Abraham Lincoln exercises over all the world is undoubtedly bound up with the mystery of the man. Somewhat more than a thousand different biographers have tried their hand at its solution, but in vain. With reverent curiosity some, and with complacent smartness others, but all have sought to trace to their hidden source the sagacity, the eloquence, the insight, the human­ ity, the wit, the brooding tenderness, in a word, the power - of this unexplainable child of nature. 2

The life of Abraham Lincoln is the most outstanding example we have as proof of the saying that any boy in this country may became President. Lincoln was of the soil, his forebears had

* pioneered into the wilderness, ever trekking westward as so many other early settlers. He was born in a rude, log hut in the wilds of Kentucky, had no formal schooling, yet by virtue of hard work attained the highest position the nation has to offer, that of

President of the United States. In this office he practised the / same homely virtues of his youth and those of the days when he had been a country lawyer. Far from becoming drunk with power and over-

1. John Philip Newman, MAbraham Lincoln’s Place in History” Book of Linooln, 65

2. Robert E. Knowles, ”The Jtystery of Lincoln.” Independent, 66, (February 11, 1909), 288. iii bearing he pursued his usual course. He was always plain Abraham

Lincoln, the man of the people. The symbols of his life, the log cabin, the rail-splitter with ax flung over his shoulder, a tall, guant figure of a homely man wearing a tall, silk hat and worn shawl have marched through the pages of American literature.

The vision that counts is that of the rude, untutored boy and youth in the solitariness of that pioneering scene, growing into the man somber and often self- distrustful, not given to any formal religiosity, relying without self-consciousness or emphatic gesture upon certain mystic monitions drawn, as it were, from the heart of mankind itself. ”What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.” There is the quite homely, there the truly precious Lincoln, the same who slept better after signing a pardon - one of the very few Christians in the bloody history of Christendom. ®

As President, Lincoln confronted the greatest crisis in the history of the nation, that of the Civil Yiar. He was faced with the problems of holding the nation together and of settling for all time the question of negro slavery. The Civil War was a conflict within a nation, brother against brother, and a very bitter struggle.

No one hated war more than Lincoln and he bent every effort to bring about an end to the destruction of property and life.

He came on the stage in one of the greatest crises known in modern history - an hour big with fate, and he dis- , cerned fundamental principles so clearly that none were able to becloud his mind, even at a time when the clamor of discorded and warring voices had confused the thought of many and obscured the basic truths even to the vision of most statesmen of the time. To clarity of thought were welded,single-heartedness, and transparent sincerity,

3. Ludwig Lewisohn, Expression in Amerioa, 196 iv

love of justice that amounted to passion, reverence for truth, and tenderness of heart, combining to make him a noble personification of the genius of democracy. 4

As the climax to a spectacular career Lincoln died at the hand of an assassin. Shakespeare himself could not have fashioned a greater tragedy. The untimely death of Lincoln made him the man of the hour and the funeral cortege winding its way across the nation was met in town and country by hosts of people, horror- stricken and mourning the death of their beloved leader. Even those who had opposed him in his policies realized that the United

States had been deprived of one of its greatest men.

Other Americans, too, have had lives patterned much the same as Lincoln's, at least in part. But it is the combination of all these factors, together with the character of Lincoln that has made him a popular subject for American literature. Why? Robert E.

Knowles in trying to probe the mystery of Lincoln has this to say:

» Uneducated, yet a master of letters, unfamiliar with many books, yet a kind of modern Aesop in homely wisdom; un­ trained in diplomaoy, yet more than a match for Seward and Chase and the most cultured parliamentarians of his day; reared amid the most primitive influences, yet familiar with every aspect of human life and almost every current of the human heart; struggling fiercely from infancy against obscurity and poverty — often too, against ruth­ less men — yet aglow with humanity, a great and compassion­ ate lover of the human race; untutored in the ways of war, yet compelling the wondering confidence of generals in the field; the rail-splitter of the plains, the awkward man who at twenty-three was earning his eight dollars a month on the farm, became the uncrowned king of one of the

4. "The Democratic Spirit and Poets of the People." Arena, 41 (July, 1909), 483. V

strongest nations, the savior of his country, the eman­ cipator of the enslaved, the champion of freedom to millions who never saw his facej became in short one of the greatest benefactors of mankind. 5

But primarily Lincoln's appeal rests on the fact that he was the ideal leader of a democratic people. Russell Blankenship in his history of American Literature says that Lincoln's democracy was founded on the double basis of economics and humanitarianism.

And his humanitarian objections were based on the words of the

Declaration of Independence.

All men are created equal, Lincoln insisted, and they have the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In his definition of equality he indulged in no logic chopping. He took the typical western attitude that equality did not refer to physical or mental endowment. It referred to equality of opportunity - equality of chance at life, liberty, and happiness. The statements of the Declaration of Independence he cheerfully seconded as a Mstumbling- block to tyrants for all time to come.” ®

The life and character of Lincoln give us the reasons why

» he has become one of the foremost figures in our history and why he has become immortalized in song and story and has been the subject of more statues and paintings than any other American. Legends and myths built around this man have become legion. It is easy to agree with Blankenship’s opinion thatj

5. Robert E. Knowles, op. cit., 288.

6. Russell Blankenship, American Literature, An Expression of the National Mind, 227. VI

If Americans all over the country should vote on the historical character who has most fully typified American life, probably the vote would favor Lincoln, He stands for more things to more people than does any other man, ^

Lincoln's life and character appeal to the lovers of the American

way of life. He is the symbolic figure of the American spirit.

The authentic American spirit born of the hope of fugitives and pioneers, disregarded by the provincial Eastern gentry of our first cultural period, reborn in Whitman, reintegrated by the people itself in the Lincoln myth, has never yet wholly perished from the land. ®

Ludwig Lewisohn writes that one only has to read Lincoln's

ideas on mankind to see why he has endured as a subject of great

American literature.

As the wisdom of a great soul it illustrates well why Lincoln ”has prospered in the hearts of men” especially in the hearts of poets and why in this day of brutal and stupid violence when the mere enforcement of law, irrespective of the law's consonance with the conscience and will and heart of men, is regarded as righteous and virtuous, Abraham Lincoln is more than ever the symbolic figure that integrated the American hope and ideal not only for his own time but for times to come in which poet after poet, even to the latest, had continued the tradition of Walt Whitman in praise of him as the great American. ”

7. Ibid. 228.

8. Ludwig Lewisohn, _op, cit., 196,

9. Ibid., 198. vii

Various types of poetry have been the vehicle for the subject of Lincoln. Sometimes he is portrayed in a lyrical piece, again in blank verse. Each poet has viewed the character and figure of Lincoln in a different way. Some idealized and romanticized him, while others regarded him realistically and even coldly. To some it was the dramatic value of his career that made its appeal. Of course, the poems have been colored by the individual author’s philosophy. Since there have been countless verses on this theme, ranging from the excellent to the jingle, a study will be made of only those considered the best and those written by our outstanding poets from 1865 to the present time.

/ CHAPTER I

WALT WHITMAN

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

It is generally agreed by critics that the most beautiful poem inspired by Abraham Lincoln is MWhen Lilacs Last in the Door- yard Bloom'd by Walt Whitman,

Whitman was born in 1819 in West Hills, Long Island, New

York, and when four years of age moved to Brooklyn, His parents were of the middle class, his father being a farmer and carpenter.

Whitman did not receive much of a formal education and what there was, was rather incomplete and hasty. Outside of one trip to New

Orleans when he was a young man, Whitman never left the eastern part of the United States, Most of the time he was employed as a journalist on various New York papers. During the Civil War he nursed in the camps and this experience gave him ideas for his many war poems. Later Whitman accepted a government position in

Washington, where he often saw Lincoln as he rode or walked.

Whitman's political views and humanitarian outlook on life were the same as Lincoln's, and the death of the President wAs a great tragedy to the poet. He himself tells that when he heard of the President's assassination he neither ate nor spoke all day,

Lincoln had more than Whitman's deep love. He had studied him at close range, and the one-time raftsman from the west, who with firm and prudent hand, had guided the Union during the tempestuous years, was in his eyes the (P, 196) 2

highest type of democrat. He was a man and a type after his own heart who justified his faith and philosophy. 1 2

■Whitman writes these words in expressing the regard with which he held Lincoln*

He leaves for America’s history and biography, so far, not only its most dramatic reminiscence - he leaves, in my opinion, the greatest, best, most characteristic, artistic, moral personality. Not but that he had faults, and show'd them in the Presidency; but honesty, goodness, shrewdness, conscience, and (a new virtue, unknown to other lands, and hardly yet really known here, but the foundation and tie of all, as the future will grandly develope), UNIONISM, in its truest and amplest sense, form'd the hard-pan of his character* These he seal'd with his life, ^

”The Poet of Democracy” is the title often given to Whitman.

It is indeed most appropriate that Lincoln, the greatest democrat of all, should have inspired many of Whitman's verses.

At this time Whitman was engaged in the publication of a volume of war poems called ”Drum Taps,”1 A supplement of this book contained the poems, ”When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom'd”,

0 Captain! % Captain”, and ’’Hush'd Be the Camps Today” . All are about the death of Lincoln.

The mournful and splendid crown of these verses inspired by the war are the hymns to the memory of Lincoln - those deathless chants; ”When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom'd” and"0 Captain! My Captain” which may be compared in power of emotion to Siegfried 's funeral march in Nibelungenlied and which are sufficient one day to make Whitman recognized

1, Leon Bazalgette, Walt Whitman, the Man and His Work, 197.

2. Walt Whitman, Prose Works, P. 61. 3

as the poet who sings the .American nation, the Homer and Pindar of the United States. In "Drum Taps” the death of Lincoln appeared as an event, one with the war. The drama by this reached its epilogue in an emotion of con­ secrated terror and of superb fate. The poet incarnated, is unforgettable poetry, the sorrow of a people; he has the heart of America in tears, gathered at the grave of her great son. 3

This volume about the war takes the reader into the camps, the battlefields, and the hospitals and reaches its tragic climax in the death of the President.

To him the death of President Lincoln loomed as a climax- event in the drama of modern democracy and was an illus­ tration of one of 'the climax-moments on the stage of universal time'. As poet of democracy in rapport with the humanity of his time, he must celebrate that event, 'the terminus of the secession war, in one man's life, here in our midst, in our own time'. Pages from Whitman's notebook show that he began feeling his way toward a poem on the very day of Lincoln's death. As poet of his own personality and as poet of MAH he must relate the event to himself and to eternity. ^

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night, I mourn'd, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring, Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west, And thought of him I 1ove.

Thus begins the song of lamentation. Nowhere in the piece is the name of Lincoln mentioned; but by intertwining the lilac, staj; and i song of the thrush the poem tells of the mourning of all for the lost leader«

3. Leon Bazalgette, op. cit., 201.

4. Esther Shepard, Walt Whitman's Prose, 243» 4

It is spring* Lilacs are in bloom in all the farm house yards. In the distance the thrush sings his song of mourning. The western star droops in sorrow. The poet brings a sprig of lilac to the bier of him who is being borne to his last resting place.

Through the crowded city streets, down quiet country lanes, stopping at dim lighted railway stations and great city terminals goes the mortal remains of the President* The poet brings lilacs and places them not only on the casket of him who has just died but in spirit on the biers of all those taken by death in the war. The thrush expresses his sorrow in his song but what of the poetj 'What is there for him to say? How shall he ’’adorn the burial-house" of him whom he loves?

What could be more fitting adornment than the apires of the cities, the prairies, the mountains, the lakes, and even the sun and stars shining over all and "enveloping man and land". It is

» the song of the thrush that shall be his funeral dirge. While he contemplates the beauty of the returning spring it is the voice of the brown bird that he now hears calling with joy to death. Into the recesses of the swamp goes the poet, with his comrades the star and the lilac seeking to learn what the thrush is carolling.

The thrush is praising death and says that:

From me to thee glad serenades, Dances for thee I propose saluting thee, adornments and feastings for thee. And the sights of the open landscape and the high- spread sky are fitting And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night. 5

As 'Whitman listens he visions scenes from the war:

And I saw askant the armies, I saw as in noiseless dreams hundreds of battle-flags, Borne through the smoke of battles and pierc'd with missiles I saw them, And carried hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody, And at last but a few shreds left on the staffs (and all in silence). And the staffs all splinter'd and broken.

He sees, too, the dead but they are at rest. It is the living that are suffering; it is they who are to be pitied. Those who are gone are resting in the peaceful arms of death. It is only the memory of loved ones now gone, that will linger. For them and for the sakB of the dear one, that sweetest and wisest of souls:

Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul There in the fragrant pines and cedars dusk and dim.

Thus by combining the lilac, the star, and the song of the thrush, 'Whitman has presented American literature with one of its greatest pieces of artistry..

It remains with Lowell's 'Commemoration Ode' as the finest imaginative product of the Civil War period. Never but once before in 'Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rockingl ' and never afterward was Whitman capable of such sustained and deep-toned recitative, varied with lyric interludes of such pure beauty. The grief at the passing of the great President becomes ennobled and transfigured into a song of praise; b t

Whitman uses no rhyme scheme in this poem, yet the verses have a definite melody. Swinburne, who was a master of melody himself, calls this work the "most sonorous nocturne ever chanted

5. Bliss Perry, Walt Whitman, His life and His Work, 156 6

£ in the church of the world.”

Probably the most outstanding feature of the poem is the poet's thought on death. He turns from the death of one mortal to ponder on the death of all humanity. He sees death as a great blessing rather than a deprivation. The poet combines a sincere emotion, that of his grief at the death of Lincoln, with a deep philosophy.

All true poets live in the universal and escape to it, even from those actual and individual occurences, persons, and things which they realize so much more vividly than ordinary men. The particular is more real to them than to the rest of us, but it is always a part of a more real universal. And so Whitman turns from Lincoln's coffin to salute all other coffins, and from death as a mere bereavement to something much larger, holier and happier; 7

Whitman has indeed given us a lyric worthy of Lincoln. It is a tribute to our great President that is deserving of an honored place in American literature. John Bailey in his life of Whitman says that "No great man has ever been wept in nobler elegy” . It is left to Alfred Kreymborg to sum up the poem in these words;

Whitman was the man to voice the mood of the race after Lincoln's assassination. "When Lilacs Last in the Door- yard Bloom'd" is one of the greatest threnodies in our literature. As in "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” Whitman built this chant out of a group of simple elements; a sprig of lilac, a fallen western star, the ' song of the thrush, the love of a nation. It is a sign of his genius that he chose such elements to interpret the nation's keenest tragedy, a tragedy akin to the Greek in its removal of the country's leader at the close of the Union victory. And how dramatically fitting

6» Bliss Perry, op. cit., 156.

7. John Bailey, Walt Whitman, 175. 7 that the assassin was the brother of the heroic tragedian, Edwin Booth, The fates wove their drama in the classic tradition, Whitman his pages in the American, 8

/

8, Alfred Kreymborg, Our Singing Strength, 226* 0 CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN'.

Far better known and of a more common variety of poetry is 'Whitman's "0 Captain, Captain!" The poet again mirrors the feelings of the nation by symbolizing Lincoln as the captain of a ship which is just pulling into port after a long, perilous voyage

The vessel is the Ship of State and the journey is the war which has just been brought to a close.

There is great rejoicing on the shore and all the people have turned out to welcome the ship but on its deck the captain lies "fallen cold and dead". The poet urges the captain to arise for the struggle is over and all his friends are crowding the shores waiting to greet him and to honor him. To him it almost seems like a horrible dream that the captain should be dead at this time. All his entreaties, however, fail to get any response from the captain and the poem ends with the lines:

Exult, 0 shores, and ring 0 bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

Whitman makes use of a definite rhyme scheme in this piece

The verses are of eight lines each and of a conventional structure

Each ends with the brittle finality of the words, "Fallen cold and dead".

And perhaps the metrical scheme is a little too strict for Whitman's genius to be at home in. Certainly the internal rhymes in which he has indulged, 9

The port is near, the bells I hear, and From fearful trip the victor ship, do not come very happily off. ®

The symbolism already mentioned is very familiar if not rather worn-out. ”The Ship of State” is not a new way of terming the government of the United States. The poet besides referring to Lincoln as the captain, calls him father as if his feeling for him were more than that of a subordinate for a superior«

The pictures presented are vivid. You hear the bells, and see the crowds on the wharves with their bouquets and wreaths, anxious to do honor to the President, The poet exhorts his captain to

Rise up - for you the flag is flung - for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths - for you the shores a-crowding For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning.

» In contrast there is the sad scene aboard the ship where the captain has fallen cold and dead.

The poem does not reach the heights in feeling or in thought that ”When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd” does.

The emotion borders on the sentimental suid there is lack of a great / philosophical idea.

And the less successful ”0 Captain, l^y Captain!” is not merely in very definite stanza form, but actually of the eight lines of its stanzas all but two rhyme. Still somehow the poem, though not a failure, scarcely shows Whitman as his best, in spite of its subject and its

9, John Bailey, op.cit., 114 10

evident sincerity. For one thing it contains a deplor­ able piece of reporter's language - "for you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths” - which looks as if, sincere as it certainly is, it was not written in a moment of strong emotion.

Because of its simplicity of structure and also of idea this poem can be easily memorized. It is the type of verse suitable for patriotic demonstrations. The fact that it has been used countless times on just such occasions has made it the most famous of all

Lincoln poems.

10. Ibid., 114 CHAPTER II

JAMES RUSSELL LOVELL

Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration

"Whitman was the herald of a new era in American literature and today is generally conceded to be our greatest poet. It is indeed fitting that one of his greatest pieces, ”Ode Recited at the

Harvard Commemoration” , should have included that great American,

Abraham Lincoln. Bliss Perry says that “When Lilacs Last in the

Dooryard Bloom'd” together with Lowell's “Commemoration Ode” are the finest imaginative products of the Civil War period.

James Russell Lowell famed in American literature and classed with those other Brahmin poets, Longfellow, Bryant,

Whittier, Emerson, and Holmes was born on February 12, 1819 in

Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father was a clergyman, pastor of the First Christian Church in Boston. Lowell was a Harvard graduate, as was his father and grandfather. James Russell during his years at Harvard showed a marked interest in the cause of slavery. This fact was to cut him off from the more conservative element in Hew

England. Unlike Whitman, Lowell left his native shores and made several trips to Europe. Much of his life was spent as a professor at Harvard and as editor-in-chief of the Atlantic Monthly. While connected with this magazine he supported the election of Abraham

Lincoln IE

It is interesting to note that it took some time for

Lowell to reach an estimation of Lincoln. At first, Lowell, along with many others, criticized the President but as he came to know

Lincoln better he perceived the character and achievements of this great American. Lowell was not amiss in acknowledging his earlier blunder. His views of the Great Emancipator have been gathered in his "Political Essays" under the title of "Abraham Lincoln".

Although the article is of many pages and has much to say about

Lincoln, only a brief summary will be given here.

We have seen no reason to change our opinion of Mr. Lincoln sinoe his wary scrupulousness won him the applause of one party, or his decided action, when he was at last convinced of its necessity, made him the momentary idol of the other. We will not call him a (P.56) great man, for over-hasty praise is too apt to sour at last into satire, and greatness may be trusted safely to history and the future; but an honest one we believe him to be, and with no aim save to repair the glory and greatness of his country. 1

Like Whitman, Lowell wrote many poems about the war, which pieces culminated in the "Cemmemoration Ode" recited at Harvard on

July 21, 1865. The portion on Lincoln was not given that day but was added immediately after and it fits in so well that the reader wonders how Lowell could have written the poem at all without this stanza.

It is no task to find words of praise on this poem of

Lowell's. Curtis Hidden Page gives it an honored place in American literature with these words:

1. Horace E. Scudder, James Russell Lowell, II, 57 13

Lowell’s poems of the war period, even if we were to leave out of account the second series of the ”Bigelow Papers”, which stand by themselves and are incomparable, must still be considered more important than those of any other poet except Whitman. They include ”The Washers of the Shroud” (1861), the memorial poem to Robert Gould Shaw (1864), ”Qn Board the ’76” (1865), and culminate in the ”Cammemoration Ode”, which seems by almost universal consent to be ranked as the greatest single poem yet written in America...... Lowell’s ’’Commemoration Ode”, the ’’Bigelow Papers”, and the ”Three Memorial Poems”, make him unquestionably our greatest poet of patriotism, ^

Although we are here primarily interested in the section

on Abraham Lincoln, it is well to review the whole poem in order to get the complete thought.

The occasion was dedicated to honor all the men of Harvard who had fought in the Civil War, Lowell’s first comment is on the

inadequacy of his verse to give due honor to all those who have

contributed their share to the preservation of the nation.

We seem to do them wrong, Bringing our robin’s-leaf to deck their hearse Who in warm life-blood wrote their nobler verse, Our trivial song to honor those who come ’With ears attuned to strenuous trump and drum, And shaped in squadron-strophes their desire. Like battle-odes whose lines were steel and firei

Harvard today welcomes home those scholars who have not only

spent their lives looking for truth but more so those who have gone

out and fought for it. The college in memorian also honors those who have died for this ideal. They have fought for something beyond

mere personal success and for something that will outlive them.

They did not attain this goal through an easy course, but were

2, Curtis Hidden Page, The Chief American Poets, 682 14 challenged that if they believed it was worth attaining they would have to fight for it and shed their blood.

To front a lie in arms and not to yield, This shows, methinks God's plan And measure of a stalwart man, Limbed like the old heroic breeds, Who stands self-poised on manhood's solid earth, Not forced to frame excuses for his birth Fed from within with all the strength he needs.

Such was Abraham Lincoln, ”our martyr-chief”. Nature it is said makes all men on one plan but for Lincoln she cast aside the

”01d-world moulds” .

And choosing sweet clay from the breast of the unexhausted West, With stuff untainted shaped a hero new, Wise steadfast in the strength of God and true.

Lincoln was the ”shepherd of mankind” who loved to lead his people, while they followed because they recognized his wisdom and worth, not that their leader was of a superior rank. Lincoln did not have a mind, that one day guided the nation and the next was lost in day­ dreaming. It was like the

Broad prairie, rather, genial, level-lined, Fruitful, and friendly for all human kind Yet also high to heaven and loved of loftiest stars.

Lincoln is a type of an older race, not of Europe, but one of

Plutarch's men. Now, however, it is too late to praise him. '

Unlike the heroes of the time who are given acclaim, Lincoln will be left to the silence of the future when men will perceive the fame of

The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, New birth of our new soil, the first American.

Thus ends the tribute to Lincoln. 15

But as man lives he will have to fight for some cause.

Now in the land of plenty the men are welcomed home from battle but it is the dead whom the poet remembers:

In these brave ranks I see the gaps Thinking of the dear one whom the dumb turf wraps, Dark to the triumph which they died to gain:

They are present in spirit and through their sacrifice the human race rises to greater heights. It is not of a single man that

Lowell sings, but of all the country's great, dead, and living, cast in the same mould. Nor is it the fighters alone in which he rejoices but in the ”pith and marrow of a Nation Drawing force from all her men.** It is the nation that should be proud for it has been saved without bitterness. The armies have been disbanded, the navies are on peaceful missions and the country seeks to find peace with all the world while she

waits the morn Of nobler day, enthroned,between her subject seas.

Calling upon all to render thanks to God for the salvation of the nation, Lowell praises her as ”0 beautiful 1 my country I ours once morel”. What would be the life of man without a united country?

Her salvation would be worth every life in the land. There can be no reckoning of what has been saved and no doubt of its value,

But ask whatever else, and we will dare!

Lowell's poem like ”When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd” considers all the dead of the Civil War. Lincoln as the culmination and embodiment of all these martyrs is given special mention. 16

Lowell, too, regarded the death of Lincoln as the climax of the war.

To the many, however, the chief value of "The Commemora­ tion Ode'* lies in the stanza on Lincoln. So just an estimate of character, so restrained in its accents of praise, American in all finer meanings of the work, splendid in its imagery and poignant in the note of grief, this beautiful tribute to the great President is final and satisfying. 3

Lowell has given American literature one of its most complete pictures of the character of Lincoln. He attains this in part by his appropriate use of figures. First he calls Lincoln, "Martyr- chief”, thus classing him with those who died for the preservation of their country. His most unusual picture is of Lincoln being formed according to a new pattern, that could only come from the west in the new world. By comparing Lincoln to a shepherd, a moun­ tain-peak and a broad prairie he brings out his leadership, his humility, his philosophy, his kindness, and his humanness. The

imagery is not only apt but it is striking. Lowell leaves it to the "wise years" to decide Lincoln's place in the scheme of the world and at the same time makes this significant prophecy:

Great captains, with their guns and drums, Disturb our judgment for the hour, But at last silence comes; These are all gone, and, standing like a tower, Our children shall behold his fame. / Lowell being of the old school which believed in set

patterns for poetry, attempted to give a definite rhyme scheme to

his poem. Although there are many deviations from the plan, the

3. Leon H. Vincent, American Literary Masters, 471. 17 poem is so smooth and well-knit that the reader forgets like

Lowell, who never discovered until the piece was printed that some of the verses lacked corresponding rhymes.

It is interesting to contrast these lines with Whitman's

"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd”, Lowell considers the dead in the light of their service to their country while Whitman considers them in their place in eternity. Lowell ’’kindles the patriotic emotions" while Whitman's is written from a more solemn, spiritual aspect.

Although the "Commemoration Ode" has been called a patriotic address it is one of the most worthy exhortations we have. It has a sustained power and a lofty sentiment that puts it in a class by itself.

Like many another great piece of literature the Ode was not enthusiastically received at the time it was delivered. It was

* only after the passage of time that any worthwhile criticisms were given of the piece.

So free, so spontaneous is this characterization of Lincoln, and so concrete in thought, that it has been most frequently read, we suspect, of any single portion of the ode, and it is so eloquent that one likes to fancy the whole force of the ode behind it, as if Lowell needed the fire he had fanned to white heat, for the very purpose of forging this last, firm tempered bit of steel, ^

4, Horace E, Scudder, op. cit,, II, 70 CHAPTER III

EDWIN MARKHAM

Lincoln the Kan of the People

The period from the Civil War until about the 1900's was barren of any great poetry. It is true that many poets were still writing but their zenith had been reached and American poetry has little merit at this time. Nor did the period produce a single poem on Abraham Lincoln that is outstanding.

But at the turn of the century there appeared a poet,

Edwin Markham, who gained much renown by his poem "The Man With the Hoe". Born in Oregon City, Oregon in 1852 Markham had spent his childhood tending the herds of sheep and cattle on the hills of Central California. He graduated from the Santa Rosa College qnd studied law, but never practised. For many years he was the * superintendent of schools in California. Markham had occasionally contributed articles to magazines but the above mentioned poem first pushed him into the limelight.

Markham was hailed as "The Poet of Democracy” and it is not surprising, therefore, that he should have been inspired to write one of his best poems on the greatest figure democracy has ever known - Abraham Lincoln.

We fully agree with this critic, that Mr. Markham is democracy's greatest poet. His stately lines not only conform to the canons of art and are rich in melody, but they ring true at every point; they are instinct 19

with the virility of democracy; they are vibrant with the spirit of justice and fraternity; they represent all that is best, truest and finest in the new social awaken­ ing which is battling against the rising tide of reaction, imperialism and class-rule based on privileged interest and acquired wealth,

"Lincoln, the Man of the People” was first presented at the

Lincoln Birthday Dinner given by the Republican Club of New York

City in 1900,

The thought of the poem is simple. In the time of conflict and strife, the fates fashioned a man who would guide.the nation through troublesome times.

"She left the heaven of heroes” and formed this leader from

"the tried clay of the common road” . Here was a man still warm from his contact with the earth, tempered by human tears, yet humor­

ous. His face was lighted by an inner flame and his greatness was

comparable to the mountains and the sea.

It was from the soil that he derived his characteristics.

He was patient like the cliffs, possessed "The good-will of the

rain that loves the leaves”, friendly like those who meet at wayside

wells, courageous like the birds that dare, glad like the gentle wind, pitiful like the snow that blankets all, secret like streams

that flow beneath the mountains, and above all tolerant alike to

great and small.

From a log cabin in the wilderness to the Capitol came this

man.

1» 0. B. Flower, ”Poet-prophet of Democracy". Arena, 35 (February 1906), 143. 20

The strength of virgin forest braced his mind The hush of spacious prairies stilled his soul.

He had one resolve, and that was to cut from its roots the evil as he had split the rails in his youth.

Determined to reach his goal was not easy, for many

deserted and denounced him

Wrenching the rafters from their ancient rest, He held the ridgepole up, and spiked again The rafters of the Home.

In spite of criticism and through adulation he stuck to his

"purpose like a growing tree". When in the turmoil he was struck

he went down As when a lordly cedar, green with boughs Goes down with a great shout upon the hills, And leaves a lonesome place against the sky.

In four stanzas, Markham has given us a characterization of

Lincoln, his career, and his death. The outstanding feature of the poem is the use of figures. Although they are not unique, they are

» not trite and in each instance are very suitable. Thus he describes

Lincoln as possessing the courage of birds that dare the sea and his mind as being fortified by the strength of virgin forests. Markham compares the nation and the seceded states to a home that has had its rafters torn away, while Lincoln holds the ridgepole up and spikes the beams again to their original places.

The qualities that always have distinquished Lincoln are presented in a new way. While Lowell says Lincoln was made of the sweet clay of the unexhausted West, Markham writes that the man was fashioned from the tired clay of the common road. Markham mentions 21

that Lincoln had ”sprung from the West”. The West is here used

symbolically as depicting a place that was less sophisticated and more elemental than the metropolitan East,

The poem is packed with word pictures. The use of color

and sound patterns add to the vividness of the piece.

Indeed, this same poem of Markham's (Lincoln, the Man of the People) gives us many a striking line from which to draw our portrait.

”Lincoln, the Man of the People” does not have an unusual

verse form. Although there is no set rhyme the lines do have a

certain cadence. Of this, however, William M. Payne says:

The ring of these lines is rather rhetorical than poet­ ical and this is true of most of Mr. Markham’s work. He is so moved by social passion, and so eager to pro­ claim the gospel of human brotherhood that he confuses the boundary between the sermon and the song. ^

Yet Mr, Payne quotes the whole poem in this review so there must have been some qualities that appealed to him. We agree with

» him that it falls short of being pure poetry yet in the portrait of

Lincoln and the outline of the ideals for which the Great Emancipator

stood it is unsurpassed.

After publication of ”The Man with the Hoe” there were

critics who said that Markham would not produce anything more to

compare with it.

2. Charles Phillips, ”The Poet’s Lincoln”. The Catholic World, 107, (March, 1918), 151.

3. William M. Payne, ”Lincoln and Other Poems, Review” . Dial, 32 (January 16, 1902), 48. But as in answer to the carping, the poet gave us "The Sower" followed by "Lincoln" that superb pen-picture of greatest statesman of the republic since the days of Thomas Jefferson. Never has the apostle of justice and union been so grandly outlined as in these stately lines. 4 56

As regards the place of this poem in American Literature

and in the ranks of other Lincoln poems there is this view:

Mr. Markham complemented the service to the cause of democratic progress which he rendered in preparing the poem, by giving to the public a carefully revised version of his justly popular personal poem on Lincoln - a poem which in its present revised form is, in our judgement, without question the greatest personal poem in American literature. 5

TVhile yet another critic has this to say:

The poem which gives its title to his latest volume, "Lincoln and Other Poems", bearing the imprint of Messrs. McClure Phillips and Co., is characterized by a breadth of treatment which puts it with the best poems on its great theme; its dignity and force are disclosed in the closing stanza. 6

In the poems thus far considered it is interesting to notice how the poets make use of nature. Yihitman employs natural objects in a symbolic and spiritual way, while Lowell and Markham use them in contrasting. The likening of Lincoln to a tree is not a device which only Markham used. It will crop up in later poems.

4. 0. B. Flower, op. cit., 143.

5. "The Democratic Spirit and Poets of the People". op. cit., 482.

6. "Eeadings from Eecent Poetry VI" Outlook, 70 (April 19, 1902), 976. * ~ CHAPTER 17

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON

The Master

It wasn’t until 1910 that the next noteworthy poem on

Lincoln made its appearance. It was the work of Edwin Arlington

Robinson and was called ”lhe Master” .

Robinson lived on the other side of the continent from

Markham. On December 22, 1869 Robinson was born in Head Tide,

Maine. His father was a grain merchant but later became a director in the bank at Gardiner, where Robinson spent his early years gathering material and reaching his philosophy of life.

Gardiner was at that time bleak with seventeenth-century Puritanism and this is shown in Robinson's verse. He had two years of educa­ tion at Harvard, from whence, he was called home by the illness of his father. His first literary production was a collection of poems called ”The Torrent and the Night” and appeared in 1897 with­ out causing much comment. He had been in New York for some time when his book ”The Children of the Night” attracted the attention of Theodore Roosevelt, who gave him a position in the Customs House so that he might earn a living and still pursue his literary career.

With the advent of this book his place in American literature was assured. Robinson has been awarded honors by the Pulitzer Foundation and the Poetry Society of America. He is generally regarded by 24 critics as the foremost poet of contemporary American literature.

Kreymborg says that Lincoln’s life paralleled Robinson’s in that neither were recognized by the cognoscenti. It was only the people who were close to the soil and to the problems of the human race that early perceived Robinson’s and Lincoln’s worth.

Intellectuals failed to recognize the early Lincoln, just as they failed to welcome the early Robinson. Whether the poet had himself in mind or not, his Lincoln is a symbolical portrait. ^

ttThe Man Who Came" or "The Master" as Robinson later titled his poem is supposed to reveal the sentiments of a certain clique who during Lincoln’s lifetime had scorned him, but who now after his assassination are conscious of the great loss the nation has sustained. The poem is written in the first person and relates how

Lincoln had been jeered at by a certain element in the country but now it is his name that will be remembered while theirs will be buried in obscurity.

He came when days were perilous And hearts of men were sore bequiled, and taking note of those who opposed him, he never took any excep­ tion to this treatment. They continued to doubt him.

Lincoln knew that in time they would be ashamed of their attitude and so he continued to work for them while they made a joke of him. In his wisdom, Lincoln perceived that they must be taught "like little children in a school". The task that Lincoln

1« Alfred Kreymborg, op. cit., 306. 25 encountered and saw through, they regarded as glamorous, yet they did nothing to help. All this time Lincoln saw they were learning while they laughed.

The face that in our vision feels Again the venom that we flung Transfigured to the world reveals The vigilance to which we clung.

This mysterious face was shrewd, and worried. It had never been young nor was it ever aged.

This figure whom they had measured by material standards was simple at his death although he possessed great wisdom at his birth.

Here was the saddest of the ’’kings of earth” burdened with grave trouble, meeting hatred with a hidden smile.

Fame and love and grandeur are material things but Lincoln possessed spiritual qualities. He had patience that was calm, and ever present, and alive. With him they had flown to a place removed from the high places these njen had dreamed of some day attaining,

IThile they soared looking for their spot in the sun, Lincoln knew wherein greatness lay. Now they have come back to earth with the knowledge of what it is to be sublime.

In this poem Robinson has given a picture of Lincoln that is entirely in accordance with his usual method of presentation.

In Mr. Robinson's poem, he is part symbol, part man, slightly conventionalized, and a little remote and cold withal. 2

2. Amy Lowell, Tendencies in Modern American Poetry, 186. 26

This is probably the most unusual and at the same time least known of the poems on Lincoln* Robinson does not attempt to reveal a new type. Here is the same Lincoln that has been portrayed count­ less times in prose and poetry. It is his viewpoint, that is of one who did not admire Lincoln, that gives the piece its individuality.

The character of Lincoln is more fully revealed in this poem than if

Robinson had set out to eulogize him. The figure of the President is more clearly delineated because he has been presented under ad­ verse conditions*

Here is Lincoln, now generally acclaimed, shown as he appeared to his enemies. The war between the states must have been not only a burden but also a great sorrow for Lincoln. Personal criticism must have made his task all the more arduous. Yet the manner in which he took these barbs presents us with an even finer picture of the Great Emancipator. Robinson not only lets us see

» Lincoln through the eyes of his adversaries, he also reveals their personalities*

As a consequence there is freshness and fulness in Robinson’s art. The themes of his poetry are usually simple and consist of the common concrete things of life. He often approached these from unexpected angles and illumines odd corners of half-forgotten things so that they shine out with a light entirely their own* Because he is a poet and has the ”sight within that never will deceive’* they become endued with a wider significance; because in addition he has intelligence, they become devinely shadowed on the walls of thought. 3

3* 0. F. Theis, ”Edwin Arlington Robinson”« Forum, 51 (February 1914), 306, 27

The prosody of the poem is very simple. The verses are of eight lines, with the first and third; the second, fourth, fifth, and seventh; and the sixth and eighth lines rhyming. Robinson never tried to introduce any new forms into his work but used the old types so as to make them his own.

His rhymes are brought in with a masterly ease, showing what rhyme, at its best should be: a natural musical punctuation. They flow, like his lines, as smoothly and pointedly as his conversation. ®

The word structure makes the thought abstract on the first reading* But on closer study one finds that the choice of words is deliberately made in order to convey more than just that of ordinary language. There is depth of thought hidden beneath these elusive phrases.

Robinson's idiom, though a simple one to read, is not always an easy one to understand. It is a simplicity that is sometimes deceptive and often circumlocutory. ®

Ho doubt Robinson worked hard to achieve this end in his art. There are no out-worn expressions nor allusions that are trite. The images are definite, the lines are simple to the point of austerity, and while constructed according to tenets of a set form the finished product is novel and pleasing.

It is interesting to note how the smoothness of his rhymes, playing against the hard outlines of his verse, emphasizes the terse, epigrammatic vigor of poems like 56

5. Louis Untermeyer, American Poetry Since 1900, 43

6. Ibid, 43. 28

“7 -T*16 Master'*, one of the finest evocations of Lincoln which is, at the same time, a bitter commentary on the commercialism of the times and the "shopman's test of age and worth". 7

The line just quoted "shopman's test of age and worth" is one of

the apt phrases that .Robinson is so adept at coining. And in three

brief lines he has given us an unforgetable picture of Lincoln:

Bowed with a galling crown, this man Met rancor with a cryptic mirth Laconic - and Olympian.

This poem is entirely unlike any other of the same subject.

That it has never been popular may be attributed to the fact (agree­

ing with Amy Lowell) that this Lincoln is cold and distant. He

isn't the Lincoln that song and story have handed down to us.

Robinson may have been more successful if he had displayed a little

feeling in his presentation. Whitman's grief was poured forth upon

the death of his hero, Lowell saw him as the greatest patriot of all

time, Markham regards him as* the saviour of a nation but what

Robinson himself felt about Lincoln will never be gathered from this

poem.

In general it may be said along with Richard Le Gallienne

that Robinson is

A poet of vividly etched lines, rather than of complete poems, flashes of insight and lightning glimpses of char­ acter. His characterizations of Lincoln in "The Master" are particularly searching.7 8*

7. Louis Untermeyer, Modern American Poetry, 143

8. Richard Le Gallienne, "Three American Poets". Forum 45 (January 1911), 88. ----- CHAPTER V

NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY

Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, the jazz poet of modern America,

had given American literature a lyric on Abraham Lincoln. Lindsay

was born in Lincoln’s home town, Springfield, Illinois, on

November 10, 1879. He studied at the Chicago Art Institute and the

New York School of Art but gave it up for the life of a roving poet

and settlement worker. He preached a gospel of beauty and strove

to arouse the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, which he felt dwelt in the

heart of every American, This interest in Lincoln began very early

in life. As a child Lindsay had romped through the rooms of

Lincoln's home, then used as a museum. Upon its walls hung the

cartoons on Lincoln that had*appeared in the papers during Lincoln’3

lifetime. Many of these were not flattering. However, they didn’t seem to create a dislike of Lincoln in Lindsay’s mind.

In an interview conducted by Marguerite Moores Marshall of wThe New York Evening World” in 1926, Lindsay affirmed his theory that the spirit of Abraham Lincoln was the true American spirit and that a poem on this theme is as national as Indian corn.

The spirit of Andrew Jackson and the spirit of Abraham Lincoln - these represent America and Americanism. And it is a spirit which is living in the America of today as in the America of yesterday! Jackson and Lincoln - 30

all that they stood for - are America's best contribution to the world. 1

The title of Lindsay's lyric is "Abraham Lincoln Walks at

Midnight."

It is portentous, and a thing of state That here at midnight, in our little town A mourning figure walks, and will not rest, Hear the old court-house pacing up and down,

Past his home, through the yards where his children used to play,

and near the markets he paces until daybreak. By his black suit,

the high top-hat, and worn shawl the figure is recognized as that

of Abraham Lincoln.

Always as in times of strife, he is with us and those who

see him pass their doors are startled. With bowed head, Lincoln

thinks of the state of affairs in the world and it is this crisis

that has aroused him from his sleep. The "sins of all the war-lords burn his heart" and he perceives the battleships lurking on the » seas.

He carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now The bitterness, the folly and the pain.

Lincoln will not rest again until a new era has arrived with the world at peace.

/ It breaks his heart that kings must murder still, That all his hours of travail here for men Seem yet in vain. And who will bring white peace That he may sleep upon his hill again?

^ J* .WWhy Vachel Lindsay Swears by the Log-Cabin." Literary Digest, 88 (February 20, 1926), 50. Z — 1 y 31

The composition ends with a note of appeal as Lindsay asks

humanity to hearken to the voice of Lincoln and bring hope again to

the world so that Lincoln may return to his rest.

In this whimsical and heart-rending picture, we have some­

thing different in Lincoln poems. The figure is Abe Lincoln of the

well-known description, but the incident and the thought are entirely

new. It is in a novel setting that we are given another glimpse of

that great American. It is one of the few times, too, that Lincoln

appears in poetry as a mythical or legendary hero. It is generally

agreed that this quality not only distinguishes Lindsay's poem,

from those by other authors but also makes it one of the best Lindsay

has produced.

Yet, in spite of these occasional imperfections and in apite of the fact that he perversely underrates the im­ portance of his rhythms, he is right at least to the extent that his peculiar excellence lies in something which is closely related to his use of imagery. It is what I can call his myth making faculty. These myths, it is true, consist of scenes; however, it is not their merit as pictures or as word-painting that matters; theirs is quite another and a not specifically aesthetic appeal. They partake of the nature of visions; the figure of Lincoln walking through the streets of Spring- field in darkness...... Such phantasms have an epic scope, legendary, fabulous. 2

Lindsay was an expert craftsman and displays his art,in

this piece. As a painter of pictures he is excellent. The

structure of the poem, while simple, is consistent and appropriate

to the thought and emotion.

2. T. K. Whipple, Spokesman, Modern Writers and American Life, 205. ------32

His poems are notable for originality, pictorial beauty, and thrilling music. 3

Lindsay's Linooln is the most unusual of those already studied. Although he regards Lincoln with a heavy heart, Lindsay is not overcome by grief such as Whitman felt. It is the Spring- field barrister that walks the streets of Springfield, not the

President or a great patriot. Lincoln is a symbolic person, in that in his person were united all the qualities of followers of democracy.

During the war in "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight" Mr. Lindsay thus practically brought to life the greatest of all Springfield's citizens, to move rest­ lessly through the streets....Poetry in a conception like this, joins hands with religion, keeping the heroes and the saints and the gods alive because those who depend upon them will not believe they have died. In a fashion like this patriotism grows up knitting many hearts together by giving them common memories and common hopes. *

3. William Lyon Phelps, "The Advance of English Poetry in the Twentieth Century." Bookman, 47, (April 1918), 125.

4. Carl Van D0ren, "Salvation with Jazz: Vachel Lindsay, Evangelist in Verse.” Century, 105 (April 1923), 755. THE LITANY OF THE HEROES

Lindsay, the evangelist, preached through the medium of his

Terse. One touch of Lincoln, in such a selection, appears in "The

Litany of the Heroes”. It is a chant about many historical characters from Confucius to Woodrow Wilson. The part on Lincoln, titled "The

American Spirit in History”, reads;

Would I Might rouse the Lincoln in you all, That which is engendered in the wilderness From lonely prairies and God’s tenderness. Imperial soul, star of a weedy stream, Born where the ghosts of the buffaloes still gleam. Whose spirit hoof-beats storm above his grave. Above that breast of earth and prairie-fire — Fire that freed the slave.

Although the poem has been criticized for being a conglomer­ ation of ideas, at least this little tribute to Lincoln is very beautiful. Into eight brief lines Lindsay has concentrated a noble thought and invoked some fitting images. The thought is entirely

American in spirit and the pictures something new.

”Litany of the Heroes” is epical in conception, muddled and monotonous in execution. It is a rhymed list of twenty-four famous characters of history, closing with - I quote Lindsay's own estimate of his incredible finale - "Socrates and Woodrow Wilson as the two men who point to the future!" And yet it is this very catholicity, this uncritical exurbance that impels the best of his gallop­ ing meters. It is the whimsical buoyancy, this side­ spring, the happy appraisals which prevent Lindsay the missionary from completely converting Lindsay the minstrel. ®

5. Louis Untermeyer, American Poetry Since 1900, 112. 33 a

Lindsay has a unique place in the history of American liter­

ature. His themes, his style and his spirit are American. Like

Whitman and Markham, he too has been called the MPoet of Democracy”

but his is the modern version of the voice of America. That he

picks on common things in American life about which to write is in keeping with his doctrines. At the same time he perceived the best

in the American scene, such as Abraham Lincoln and gives it a place among ideas considered of lesser merit.

1 CHAPTER VI

EDGAR LEE MASTERS

Autochthon

Another writer of poetry about Lincoln who came from the

Middle West, was Edgar Lee Masters. He was born in Garnett, Kansas in 1869, He came of an old Puritan and pioneering stock and like

Lincoln later moved to Illinois. He was educated at Knox College and took up the study of law. He located in Chicago and at one time was a partner of that famous lawyer, Clarence Darrow. Writing of verse was a side-line with him until the publication of MThe

Spoon-River Anthology” in 1915. Up to this time his poetry had been the usual run of mediocre verse with regular meters, rhymes, etc., but with very little to say. In "Spoon-River” he wrote about subjects d o s e to home and ohose southern Illinois as the scenes of his lyrics. It is not surprising that he should have been inspired by Illinois’ favorite son, Abraham Lincoln. True to the new move­ ment in American literature, American background, and American people appear in his work.

So this Americanism of his is a very obvious thing. It is a sort of leit-motif appearing again and again, and preferably on the trumpets. The symbol of this American­ ism is the figure of Lincoln. 1

1. Amy Lowell, op. eit., 184. 35

In the poem "Autochthon” Lincoln is compared to Charles

Darwin, born on the same day and Alfred Lord Tennyson born in the same year. Both Tennyson and Darwin lived in a world that provided education and culture, and they had little opposition in attaining their goal. But Lincoln, born in the backwoods and reared in poverty, had to struggle to get the rudiments of an education, to earn a livelihood, and to realize even meager success. Many times he was thwarted in his political ambitions, as for instance, when he was defeated for the state legislature and the United States Senate.

By the time Darwin and Tennyson had reached their fortieth year, they had reached the pinnacle of their fame.

But Lincoln, the small-town lawyer, was sitting in his office in Springfield, feet on the desk and brooding. Perhaps he was attempting to find a solution for the problems of life and of the human race. It wasn't until 1860, when Lincoln was in his

» fifties, that men recognized his rare qualities, and he was elected

President of the United States.

In 1862, Lincoln issued the proclamation freeing the slaves because he felt that if slavery was the bone of contention that was splitting the union of the states, he would rid the nation of this / issue. Lincoln was hailed for this masterful stroke he had taken.

From it people drew false conclusions as to the character of Lincoln.

He was not a man to measure success by economic norms, nor did he believe that the weak would be avenged through war. Those who per­ ceived him as such a leader did not know the real Lincoln. There 36 was an inner flame, the love of justice and of mercy, that prompted him in his actionsB

Masters paints a most matter-of-fact picture of Lincoln*

Lincoln is not a superman but a great American and worthy of the trust placed in him as President. There is nothing symbolical nor mythical in this portrayal. Here is Mr. Lincoln, a man from Spring- field, Illinois, who was endowed with the ability, and the will to bring peace and order out of chaos, and fighting.

Lincoln is a man first of all, but a man who, in his actual life, typifies a national aspiration. He is conceived as boldly, as surely, as any other of Mr. Master's characters and although venerated and loved with unchanging ardour, it is always as a man, neither conventionalized by tradition, nor flung by a powerful imagination into the realm of legend. 2

There are passages giving sidelights on Lincoln never touched by our other poets* Thus he says that nobody had ever called the President » Anything but Mr. Lincoln never Abe or Abraham, and never used The Hello Bill of salutation to you - 0 great patrician, therefore fit to be Great democrat as welll

In spite of some good lines and excellent delineation,

"Autochthon" is a failure as poetry. Its good points have failed to make it a popular piece.

Abounding vigor he has, a vision at times of helpful clarity, and a few scattering lines of gold; but scatter­ ing bottle corks can hardly keep afloat a load of lead. ®

2, Ibid., 186.

3* Clement Wood, Poets of Amerioa, 180* 37

The fault lies in the fact that "Autochthon” displays little poetic technique. As a prose composition it is excellent but as poetry it shows up Master's lack of the knowledge of the art.

Therefore, that magic quality that is only present in poetry is missing. CHAPTER VII

JOHN GOULD FLETCHER

Lincoln

One of the most beautiful lyrics on the Great Emancipator has been written by John Gould Fletcher of the Lnagist school. Mr.

Fletcher was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on January 5, 1886. His father had migrated there from Tennessee and had served in the Con­ federate Army during the Civil War. This latter fact, however, does not seem to have prejudiced Fletcher against the Civil War President.

Fletcher received his education at eastern schools and matriculated at Harvard. College life didn't appeal to him nor did the United States. He moved to London, where, except for brief visits to this country, he continues to reside.

Much of his poetry is concerned with attacks on the evils of life and of humanity. Perhaps, it is because of this interest that he peroeived in Abraham Lincoln a crusader, who was fighting for the betterment of mankind.

And yet, like Whitman, Lowell, Markham, Robinson, Lindsay, Sandburg, this poet in the midst of whatever hatred or dispair he may feel concerning his race, was moved by Lincoln. One of the noblest tributes to the all-saving Rail-splitter is Fletcher's. 1

1. Alfred Kreymborg, op. oit., 365. 39

Fletcher introduces the reader to Lincoln by comparing him

to a tree.

Like a gaunt, soraggly pine Which lifts its head above the mournful sandhills; And patiently, through dull years of bitter silence. Untended and uncared for, begins to grow.

The blasts from the cold North have twisted and gnarled the branches

of this noble tree just as adversity pursued the early years of

Lincoln’s life. When the nation is engaged in conflict, however, all

turned to this tree to Mrest beneath its shade’*. Here they are pro­ tected **until at last one mad stray bolt from the zenith** hurled it

to the ground. Thus in three brief verses of Part I, we have the whole life of Lincoln outlined.

In Part II, Fletcher compares Lincoln’s character to the

roots of a tree. The roots of the tree derives its sustenance from

the air, from the earth, and from the water, while Lincoln received

his wisdom, courage, and patience from the ancients, and the prophets who talked with God.

Not proud but humble, Only to serve and pass on, to endure to the end through service; was Lincoln’s aim in life.

Part III brings in the mythical element. This poem was written in 1916 before the United States had entered the war, and a bewildered nation is looking for guidance as to which course they

shall take. Lincoln speaks from the grave of his following of an

ideal in spite of the deaths of loved ones. He exhorts the people 40

to question their dead and listen to their advice«

From your hostages to silence, Learn there is no life without death, no dawn without sun-setting, No victory but to him who has given all.

Fletcher prophesies in Fart IV, that as long as Linooln is

kept before the minds of the people, nations will bow to their law.

In the midst of problems, it is from the tomb of Lincoln that the

country's ideals should be taken. So

Strew over him flowers: Blue forget-me-nots from the north, and the bright pink arbutus From the east, and from the west rich orange blossoms But from the heart of the land take the passion-flower;

Rayed, violet, dim, With the nails that pierced, the cross that he bore and the circlet, And beside it there lay also one lonely snow-white magnolia Bitter for remembrance of the healing which has passed.

Fletcher, as was already mentioned, is of the Imagist school

» of poetry, and although this poem is not written after the model this school advocates, it does follow many of its tenets. The best thing about this school was its insistence upon clarity, simplicity, and vivid imagery. Thus Fletcher uses simple words that have no complicated allusions, the thought is clear and concentrated, and the images are vivid.

Unrhythmed verses with a mingling of stressed and unstressed syllables give the piece a melodic tone. It's subdued lyricism is one quality that makes it outstanding among those on the same subject» 41

Fletcher was noted for his originality in poetry and his presentation of Lincoln is indeed novel. The likening of Lincoln to a tree has become a familiar device in the pieces already studies* However, Fletcher has given the idea a new twist. He contrasts the physical aspect of Lincoln to a rugged tree while

Lincoln’s spiritual qualities which he received from God, are likened to the sustenance that the tree derived from the earth, the air, and the water. Another unusual feature of the poem is the fact that a religious aspect is taken of Lincoln. In the last stanza of the poem, Fletcher contrasts Lincoln's life to that of

Christ's.

I think that it is the finest poem on Lincoln which has been written. It has the emotional seriousness of prayer. It was written in the winter of 1916 before the United States had entered the war, and it is instinct with the anxiety of waiting, the anquished desire for guidance. Lincoln stands before us, at once a man and an aspiration, a recollection, and a goal. He is the symbol of our possibilities, the reason for our courage. Gravely like a funeral march, with serene steadfastness, like the hope of resurrection, the poem moves along and the great darkness of the opening lines yields gradually to the lyric close, ^

Although Fletcher's vision is of the mystic type, his

Lincoln is at the same time majestic and close to humanity. The note of solemnity that pervades the piece is not depressing. The selection has that magic quality in common with "Abraham Lincoln

Walks at Midnight". Like Lindsay, Mr. Fletcher has raised "Lincoln

2, Amy Lowell, op. oit., 331 42 to the veiled awe of a national legend”. 3

1

3. Ibid., 327. CHAPTER VIII

STEPHEN VINCENT BENET

John Brown's Body

The most recent noteworthy poem which speaks of Abraham

Lincoln is «John Brown's Body« by Stephen Vincent Benet. Benet was

born in 1398 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His father, grandfather,

and great grandfather had been army officers. Benet attended

Harvard and graduated in 1920. He also studied at the Sorbonne in

Paris and it was in France that he wrote «John Brown's Body«. His

brother, William, tells how even as a child Stephen was interested

in the Civil War. Such books in his father's library as «Battles

and Leaders« and old army records took up much of his time.

Benet, though still a young man, was so thoroughly satur­ ated with the war, from infancy on, thanks to his father's memories, and has made so persistent a study of histories, biographies, newspapers, facts, hearsay, legends, and lies, as to be the poet best fitted at present to compose a Civil War epic. 1

With this background it is no wonder that he should have written such an epic, and as Abraham Lincoln was the Civil Y/ar's chief actor it is only natural that he should be included in its history.

The poem was published in 1928 and received the Pulitzer award for that year.

1. Alfred Kreymborg, op. oit., 608. 44

The composition is patterned after the style of a true epic.

Benet starts with an invocation to the muse of a purely American

nature, and the dedication of himself to the tale he is about to un­

fold.

The narrative includes both Northerners and Southerners and

their actions under the stress of the times. Some are fictional

characters, while others are those famous in American history. There

are scenes on the battlefields, in cities and in the open country*

At the Capitol in Washington is the head of an embittered

nation, striving to keep his head amidst all the turmoil and chaos

engendered by the various factions. He is Abraham Lincoln "six

feet one in his stocking feet" and "whose hands were always too big

for white-kid gloves". Rugged, ungainly figure that he was, he

still possessed a dignity that impressed hero-worshipping Hays. At

forty, Lincoln had been a failure but with "ambition enough for

» twenty Caesars".

Now this small-town lawyer had been elected to the office

of President. It is a difficult task for him to know which way to

turn. Politicians are plaguing him for favors, his children are

ill, his wife is worried, and scolds about household matters. The

state of affairs within his Cabinet is the biggest worry that

Lincoln has. He reverts to his boyhood experiences to solve the problem of reconciling Seward and Chase. Philosophically, he muses

on Jeff Davis and wonders how things are going for him. But there 45

are more important things that need attention so Lincoln calls for

75,000 volunteers,

Ihe war has progressed a few weeks when next we view Lincoln,

Horace Greeley, editor of a New York paper, has been begging the

President to call off the war in any way that he can. The week

before, however, Greeley had been urging the people of the North on

to battle. Only Lincoln is unperturbed by the various counsels he

has been given. The cause, he feels, will survive a defeat and may

even survive a victory. Lincoln is motivated by a star, a prairie-

star, He is visioning a world of peace, that will be erected from

the ruins of a nation torn asunder. In the South there is also

another man with a star, Robert E. Lee, and he is steadily becoming

a menace to the cause of Lincoln.

On a blistering, hot summer day everyone in Washington is

waiting anxiously for news of the army. Outside the city at the

» Soldiers' Home it is somewhat cooler. Here is Abraham Lincoln and

he, too, is concerned over the outcome of the day's battles. The

war has been going on eighteen months and the Union forces have been

defeated on all sides. Perhaps, it is the fault of the generals of

his arny, but there is little he can do to remedy the situation.

Lincoln has been harrassed by countless letters from people advising

him as to the course he should take. Each one says his advice is the will of God. Lincoln speculates as to the reason why he has not been shown the will of God, Next he prays and compares himself to and old hound dog in patience. 46

But, Mister, that dog's hell on a cold scent And, once he gets his teeth in what he's after, He don't let go until he knows he’s dead.

Two months before the President had proposed to set the slaves free.

On this act he had not asked the advise of his Cabinet but told

them he was determined to do it. But they persuaded him that he

should wait for a victory before issuing this proclamation,

Lincoln asks God to give him that victory because he feels that

this is the will of his Creator as it is manifested to him.

Recollections cf his early life, occupy the mind of Lincoln

and he recalls his love for Anne Rutledge, It has been years since

he thought of that lost grave.

But when I think of it, and when I hear The rain and snow fall on it, as they must, It fills me with unutterable grief.

He reviews his life and returns again to present troubles. Someone

comes to tell him that the Confederate armies have been routed and

are now retreating. He rejoices but at the same time is resolving

to go on in spite of any further defeats that he knows will come.

Four years have passed since Lincoln has been made President

and it is the time of another election. The newspapers have called him and his cohorts harsh names and even his friends have become doubtful of him, Lincoln has made plans, however, that if he is defeated the work of preserving the Union will go on. The news that he has been re-elected is brought to him and he remarks

Well, I guess they thought They'd better not swap horses, crossing a stream.

The next time we see Lincoln he has just had a dream of him­ 47 self being rushed into darkness on the deck of a black, formless boat» Although Lincoln regarded this dream with significance, it had not worried him« Now that Lee had surrendered and the war was over, Lincoln had been working out a plan for healing the wounds of the South. That same afternoon he went driving with his wife and spoke to her of the time when he would no longer be President. To go back to Springfield with its peace and quiet, to see old friends, and to practise law again were all that he desired. That evening the President and Mrs. Lincoln attended the theater. During the course of the play a shot rang out and

Lincoln lay stricken in the flag-draped box* Living but speechless. Now they lifted him And bore him off. He lay some hours so. Then the heart failed. The breath beat in the throat The black, formless vessel carried him away.

Benet utilized many types of meter in working out this narrative. The portions on Lincoln, as well as the rest of the » composition, are written in blank verse, rhyme, and free verse.

Sometimes the author resorts to pure prose. The use of the differ­ ent styles of poetry does not detract from the drama of the story but rather adds to it.

The poem is not faultless - far from it. There are / passages which, if they were written in prose, no one would suspect of being anything but prose. There are other passages in which the poet has taken such liber­ ties with meter as to make it seem almost like free verse. But always the poem is alive. It has always a story to tell or a picture to paint. It is inter- 48

spersed here and there with lyrics, some of them of outstanding beauty. 2

The portions speaking of Lincoln run in chronological order

through the poem. They are one of the threads besides that of the

Civil War that give the epic any unity. The poem is very long and

the lines on Lincoln alone, amount to more than those written about

him by any other poet*

This presentation of Lincoln is wholly different than that

of any other author. For one thing the setting, within the Civil

War period and Lincoln as a character in this drama has never

before been attempted in verse. While no direct comparisons are made it does show Lincoln in contrast to the,other actors of the

time* In his soliloquys especially, Lincoln displays that homely wisdom for which he has become so famous.

This poem of portraiture, of making his characters live, is one of Benet's most remarkable gifts. He stands with pencil and sketch-book before each of the statesmen and soldiers in turn, and sets them down with their hopes and their ambitions, their achievements and their fail­ ures, so that they say like the troops who had seen Linooln, "So that man was heiw 3

Benet's attitude towards his leading man is very impersonal.

He is not overcome by any great grief such as Whitman experienced,

nor does he regard Lincoln as a legendary or mythical figure. His

2. ’’Saga of the American Civil War: John Brown’s Body, by S. V. Benet." Contemporary Review, 146 ( October 1934), 469.

3. Ibid., 469. 49

Lincoln emerges as the Lincoln we are familiar with from reading biographies by such writers as Sandburg. At the same time it is one of the most pathetic and human portrayals of Lincoln in

American literature. Above all it is very realistic. Kreymborg says that it is

a book composed of glorious fragments of poetry, thrilling battle scenes, portraits of leaders and portraits of minor characters. 4

4« Alfred Kreymborg, op. cit., 609, CHAPTER IX

CONCLUSION

The outstanding poets who have been inspired by Abraham

Lincoln range from Walt Whitman, who had seen Lincoln to Stephen

Vincent Benet, who learned of this man by reading and through hear­ say, Their birthplaces, their environments, and their backgrounds differ with each author,

Edwin Arlington Robinson was born in Maine and Edgar Lee

Masters in Kansas, Robinson lived in a Puritan atmosphere and

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay resided in Lincoln's home town, Springfield,

Illinois, John Gould Fletcher's father had fought on the side of the confederacy during the war between the states, and Lowell, although of the New England Brahmin class, had been a political adherent of Lincoln's,

The author of the most famous poem on Lincoln, Walt Whitman, had very little formal education, while Benet has received degrees from Harvard, A few had the opportunity to broaden their education by travel, such as Fletcher, On the other hand, Whitman only rarely left the scenes of Brooklyn,

Literature as a life work was early adopted by Lindsay and

Benet, Masters was a successful lawyer before he became a poet; both Lowell and Whitman were engaged in journalism; Markham was a superintendent of schools* 51

In general it may be said that each poem on Lincoln has added to the laurels of its writer. Most of them have been included

in anthologies of American poetry as the best or as one of the best

compositions of their authors.

These poems on Abraham Lincoln are not only American in sub­

ject but American in spirit and in the type of poetry used as the medium. There are few classical allusions and no set rule governs the technique of these poems,

Whitman was acclaimed as the first to break away from the tenets and the subjects, up to then deemed fit for English litera­ ture. He shows this tendency in his threnody "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd". The same can be said of the other poets.

Three of them, Whitman, Markham, and Lindsay have been termed as the "Poet of Democracy" of their time.

The prosody of these poems has differed with their individ- ual authors. Yihile Masters used vers libre, Lindsay utilized lyrical stanzas, and Benet (most generally) employs blank verse.

Of course, the verses abound in pictures of Abraham Lincoln,

But they are not all the conventionalized portrayals to which we are accustomed. Robinson delineates the personality of Lincoln.

Benet, on the other hand, gives us the most complete and striking painting of Lincoln's physical appearance and also an insight into his character. Lindsay uses the stock description of Lincoln but his poem is not trite. The loutish prairie-town lawyer is emphasized by Masters, yet he compares Lincoln favorably with 52

Tennyson and Darwin, two of the leading figures of the day.

Contrasting Lincoln to objects of nature is a very common

practice. Markham and Fletcher liken Lincoln to a tree. Whitman

calls Lincoln the "Captain" of the "Ship of State". To Lindsay,

Lincoln is the embodiment of all that is best in a democratic

society and R0binson perceived Lincoln's life as symbolic of his

own.

Great depths of thought and sincere emotion distinguish

many of the poems. Whitman, of course, leads the field with "When

Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd". His grief was personal but

he regarded it in the light of a universal sorrow. Perhaps, because

he displayed too much thought and not enough emotion, Robinson's

poem has lost much of its appeal. This could also be said of

"Autochthon", by Masters.

All possess a certain realism. Those like "Abraham Lincoln

Walks at Midnight" and'Lincoln" by Fletcher belong in the realm of

romantic poetry beoause they have made a mythical character of

Lincoln, This according to critics will be more prevalent in

Lincoln literature of the future. Two very life-like portraits are

in "Autochthon" and in "John Brown's Body".

Different periods in our history have called forth new

stanzas on the Great Emancipator. During the World War, Lindsay

and Fletcher resurrected Lincoln to be a guide and a beacon for a bewildered nation. 53

To some Lincoln was a figure to be eulogized in a single

poem while others perceived in him the leading character of the

most critical period of American history, Lincoln’s death was the

climax of that struggle in Whitman’s estimation. To Lowell he was

the greatest of those who had laid down their lives for an ideal

and to Benet he was the leading man in his dramatic epic.

Those studied are the most famous poems on Abraham Lincoln

but there are countless others by lesser poets and also many second-

rate compositions by major poets. Some of these have been so un­

noticed that it is impossible to find them in the ordinary antholog­

ies of American poetry•

At Lincoln’s death there were others besides Whitman and

Lowell who wrote poems of lamentation, William Cullen Bryant wrote

a short lyrical piece for the occasion. In fact there were few

poets of the day, who did not turn out a selection, "Hush'd Be the

Camps Today” is Whitman speaking in the person of the soldier in the

Union Am y ,

In the period between Lincoln's death and Markham’s poem,

Lincoln was a favorite subject for American poetry, Phoebe Cary,

Bayard Taylor and Richard Henry Stoddard are only a few of £he many who made a contribution to the folio of Lincoln poems, Harriet

Monroe speaks of Lincoln in the "Commemoration Ode" written for the

World's Columbian Exposition in 1892,

Of a more modern school are Edgar Lee Masters and Carl

Sandburg, ’’Anne Rutledge", one of the best pieces by Masters is an 54

inferential tribute to Lincoln* Sandburg, more famous for his

prose biography of the Civil War President, mentions Lincoln most

appropriately in "Cool Tombs",

Witter Bynner, who might have risen to the heights, is

responsible for a Lincoln poem written in dialect - "A Farmer

Remembers Lincoln". James Oppenheim, another of the lesser poets

of contemporary literature, composed a piece entitled, "The Lincoln

Child".

"Abraham Lincoln" by Stephen Vincent Benet is a short, ballad typ© of verse. Although not written on such a grand scale as his "John Brawn's Body" it does possess a whimsicality and charm that is pleasing. Similar to this piece is Vachel Lindsay's, "When

Lincoln Came to Springfield". Cithers besides Fletcher and Lindsay have made a mythical character of Lincoln. Arthur Guiterman's "lie

Leads Us Still" is this type of portrayal,

Abraham Lincoln has not only been a popular subject for

American poetry but this poetry is as diversified in type and in viewpoint as the poets themselves. Besides the outstanding poems and the few lesser ones mentioned, there are innumerable other selections. The Ode, the sonnet, the ballad or just plain jingle have been composed about this historic figure. Lincoln's tall, silk hat, the stories he told, countless incidents in his life, the tomb where he is buried, the statues erected to his memory, his life mask and of course, the anniversaries of his birth have been the subject of new pieces on our Civil War President. In whatever light 55 any poet has regarded this character and whatever devices have been used to convey their ideas, together they have given American

literature a comprehensive portrayal of "the greatest democrat of them all" — Abraham Lincoln.

1

57

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