| |
| LOOK on this cast, and know the hand | |
| That bore a nation in its hold: | |
| From this mute witness understand | |
| What Lincoln was,—how large of mould | |
| |
| The man who sped the woodman’s team, | 5 |
| And deepest sunk the ploughman’s share, | |
| And pushed the laden raft astream, | |
| Of fate before him unaware. | |
| |
| This was the hand that knew to swing | |
| The axe—since thus would Freedom train | 10 |
| Her son—and made the forest ring, | |
| And drove the wedge, and toiled amain. | |
| |
| Firm hand, that loftier office took, | |
| A conscious leader’s will obeyed, | |
| And, when men sought his word and look, | 15 |
| With steadfast might the gathering swayed. | |
| |
| No courtier’s, toying with a sword, | |
| Nor minstrel’s, laid across a lute; | |
| A chief’s, uplifted to the Lord | |
| When all the kings of earth were mute! | 20 |
| |
| The hand of Anak, sinewed strong, | |
| The fingers that on greatness clutch; | |
| Yet, lo! the marks their lines along | |
| Of one who strove and suffered much. | |
| |
| For here in knotted cord and vein | 25 |
| I trace the varying chart of years; | |
| I know the troubled heart, the strain, | |
| The weight of Atlas—and the tears. | |
| |
| Again I see the patient brow | |
| That palm erewhile was wont to press; | 30 |
| And now ’t is furrowed deep, and now | |
| Made smooth with hope and tenderness. | |
| |
| For something of a formless grace | |
| This moulded outline plays about; | |
| A pitying flame, beyond our trace, | 35 |
| Breathes like a spirit, in and out,— | |
| |
| The love that cast an aureole | |
| Round one who, longer to endure, | |
| Called mirth to ease his ceaseless dole, | |
| Yet kept his nobler purpose sure. | 40 |
| |
| Lo, as I gaze, the statured man, | |
| Built up from yon large hand, appears: | |
| A type that Nature wills to plan | |
| But once in all a people’s years. | |
| |
| What better than this voiceless cast | 45 |
| To tell of such a one as he, | |
| Since through its living semblance passed | |
| The thought that bade a race be free! | |
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