Daniel Chester French's Abraham Lincoln
and related poetry
INTRODUCTION
→ Wikipedia entry on Daniel Chester French's 1920 statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial ←
→ Abraham Lincoln and Poetry (from the Library of Congress) ←
→ Wikipedia entry on Daniel Chester French's 1920 statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial ←
→ Abraham Lincoln and Poetry (from the Library of Congress) ←
POEMS
Here are four poems related to the Lincoln Memorial, and to French's statue of Abraham Lincoln in particular.
Lincoln Monument: Washington
(by Langston Hughes) (written in 1926)
Let's go see Old Abe
Sitting in the marble and the moonlight,
Sitting lonely in the marble and the moonlight,
Quiet for ten thousand centuries, old Abe.
Quiet for a million, million years.
Quiet--
And yet a voice forever
Against the
Timeless walls
Of time--
Old Abe.
(by Langston Hughes) (written in 1926)
Let's go see Old Abe
Sitting in the marble and the moonlight,
Sitting lonely in the marble and the moonlight,
Quiet for ten thousand centuries, old Abe.
Quiet for a million, million years.
Quiet--
And yet a voice forever
Against the
Timeless walls
Of time--
Old Abe.
O Captain! my Captain!
(by Walt Whitman) (written in 1865)
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
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;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
(by Walt Whitman) (written in 1865)
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
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;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
This Dust was Once the Man
(by Walt Whitman) (written in 1871)
This dust was once the man,
Gentle, plain, just and
under whose cautious hand,
Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age,
Was saved the Union of these States.
(by Walt Whitman) (written in 1871)
This dust was once the man,
Gentle, plain, just and
under whose cautious hand,
Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age,
Was saved the Union of these States.
At the Lincoln Memorial
(by Archibald MacLeish) (written in 1962)
Within that door
A man sits or the image of a man
Staring at stillness on a marble floor.
No drum distracts him nor no trumpet can
Although he hears the trumpet and the drum.
He listens for the time to come.
Within this door
A man sits or the image of a man
Remembering the time before.
He hears beneath the river in its choking channel
A deeper river rushing on the stone,
Sits there in his doubt alone,
Discerns the Principle,
The guns begin,
Emancipates—but not the slaves,
The Union—not from servitude but shame:
Emancipates the Union from the monstrous name
Whose infamy dishonored
Even the great Founders in their graves …
He saves the Union and the dream goes on.
(Written for ceremonies marking the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation and read by the poet at the memorial on September 22, 1962)
(by Archibald MacLeish) (written in 1962)
Within that door
A man sits or the image of a man
Staring at stillness on a marble floor.
No drum distracts him nor no trumpet can
Although he hears the trumpet and the drum.
He listens for the time to come.
Within this door
A man sits or the image of a man
Remembering the time before.
He hears beneath the river in its choking channel
A deeper river rushing on the stone,
Sits there in his doubt alone,
Discerns the Principle,
The guns begin,
Emancipates—but not the slaves,
The Union—not from servitude but shame:
Emancipates the Union from the monstrous name
Whose infamy dishonored
Even the great Founders in their graves …
He saves the Union and the dream goes on.
(Written for ceremonies marking the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation and read by the poet at the memorial on September 22, 1962)
Discussion questions / points / activities
- Compare and contrast the poems and the visual art, identifying what it is about Abe Lincoln that inspired each.
- How do the poets, and the sculptor, evoke Lincoln's singular character?
- What elements of poetry and visual art are used?
- Read this article from Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History relating Abe Lincoln to Walt Whitman
REFERENCES
- Langston Hughes' "Lincoln Monument: Washington"→ http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/lincoln/monument.htm
- Walt Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain" → https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45474/o-captain-my-captain
- Walt Whitman's "This Dust was Once the Man" → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Dust_Was_Once_the_Man
- Archibald MacLeish's "At the Lincoln Memorial" → http://shubow.com/blog/lincoln-on-a-marble-floor.html
