Burr and Burton Academy - Burtonian Yearbook (Manchester, VT)

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THE BUPTONIAN It IS a pleasurable experxence to begxn wlth Whltman and go through the poems of the wrxters ment1oned here before endmg wxth Benet The com fort of bemg able to know Abe Lmtoln and so to be truly thankful not only that we had Abraham L1ncoln but thankful for the many great poets who have helped g1ve us thus Joy of knowxng hxm' I partlcularly enjoy Stephen Benet I 11ke h1s cornparatxve slmpllclty and h1s capac1ty for v1v1d descmptxon He takes us w1th L1ncoln through many phases of the war from the po1nt of vxew of Llncolns personal trxals The heros courage mrsgxvxng and desxres emotlonally become ours If God reads The hearts of men as clearly as He must To be Hlmself then He can read ln mme And has for twenty years the old scarred wlsh That the last slave should be forever free Here 1n thls country I do not go back From that scarred wlsh and have not But I put The UDIOH first and last before the slave If freemg slaves w1ll br1ng the Umon back Then I w1l1 free them 1f by freemg some And leavxng some enslaved I help my cause I w1ll do that but should such freedom mean The wreckage of the Unxon that I serve I would not free a slave The tremendous straln the worry and care the severe cntxcism Abraham Lmcoln h1s hand a.nd pen He w1ll be good but God knows when He w1ll be wxse but God knows when It doesn t matter If I had some news News from that fog I ll get the hypo sure Unless I watch myself waxtmg for news I can t afford to get the hypo now Ive got too much to do Thxs does make us reahze the terrmilc struggle and we forget to be a hero worshlpper 1n a popular sense and penetrate the finer keener feelxngs of a human bemg who actually was so great that he has become sacred to the natlon and to those who love hlm Stephen Benet IS a modern poet not only 1S he modern but he IS young Whxle we do not perhaps regard hlm as belongmg to our first group of contemporary poets thls book Jolm Brown s Body clearly marks hlm as brlllxant and promxslng and touched with genlus We have Lmcoln poetry from Walt Whltman to the present day and undoubtedly more w1ll follow The commg generatlon of poets wlll wrlte about L1ncoln because he has an eternal qualxty a. humanxty whrch outlasts h1s tlme What the speclal emphasls of the new poetry w1ll be IS a matter for speculatxon It may be a new rad1ance stressmg the man of the people . 7 . U . v , I Y ' ll , , . 1 i ' 3 . . A I ll What more is needed for the realization of his great causes! U A ' ' Y i ' V , . , . . I ' I I , 1 - . . y 7 . ' ' Tu 1 , , . Y . . . p ,,

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6 THE BURTONIAN hrs own patterns-and then the marvelous result three outstandmg poems wrltten about one man Abraham L1ncoln These poems mark the qualxty of Wh1tmans genlus and comment on Lmcoln ln that he called forth such trlbute James Russell Lowell was one of the most spontaneous and best eqlupped poets of hrs day H15 grace h1s humor and the great range traversed from hrs natlonal odes to h1s dlalect verse are xmpresslve In hrs Commemoratxon Ode reclted at Harvard ln 1865 1S a trxbute to Lmcoln of WhlCh I quote a part A Consclence more d1v1ne than we A gladness fed wlth secret tears A vexmg forward reachmg sense Of some more noble permanence A llght across the sea Whlch haunts the soul and wxll not let It be Stlll beaconmg from the he1ghts of undegenerate years In 1865 Rxchard Henry Stoddard wrote Abraham Lmcoln An Horatlan Ode a poem of great power Hls qulet but orxgmal style d1st1ngu1shed for a quamtly xmaglnatlve quallty and hls lyrlcs have gameo hlm recogmtlon as belng among our best lyrxc poets Some of the more recent poets who have wrltten about Lmcoln are Edwm Markham Vachel Llndsay Stephen Vlncent Benet Edwln Arhngton Roblnson fone of our first poet whose poem about Lmcoln The Master IS penetratlng but unfortunately has not the remark able brlllxance of most of h1S workl John Gould Fletcher Harrlet Monroe Llndsay who stands out They have somethlng of the same manner In the1r descrlptlons of personal appearance whxch glves us a feelmg of xntlmate acquaxntance wxth the person they portray A bronzed lank man' Hls su1t of anclent black A famous hlgh top hat and plam Worn shawl Make hlm the quamt great figure that men love The prame lawyer master of us all Lmcoln slx feet one 1n hls stockmg feet The lank man knotty and tough as a hrckory ra1l Whose hands were always too blg for whlte kld gloves Whose w1t was a coonskm sack of dry tall tales Whose weathered face was homely as a plowed field Two dliferent pxctures and yet th y both leave a s1m11ar unpressxon But what contrast there IS ln Wh1tman and Benet or Lowell and Lxndsay' One cannot Justly compare them for thexr subject matter IS allke only ln the fact that the same Hgure 1nsp1red thelr poems Thexr 1nd1v1dual aspects of Lmcoln are entrrely duferent Wh1tman was cr1t1c1zed for h1s free verse I wonder xf perhaps Wh1tman would have cr1t1c1zed Benet lf he had wr1tten at that txme It seems highly probable' It IS an amazlng and suggestlve lndlcatlon of the unversatlhty of Lmcolns appeal that one human bemg could be so constantly used ln poetry and so seldom presented 1n the same phase of character If one were speakmg of love or nature and the mterpre tatlon of them LD poetry thls dlversxty of vxew would be expected but xt does seem mcred1ble regardmg a smgle human figure even an hero1c natxonal one . , . . . Y . I . 1 . y X . . . . . . . ,, . , , , ' H . . . , Y - . ' C , . . . ,, . ,, . , . . . , - , I Y ' . . . v y . S 3 . y . . . S V ' U H ' ' . . . Y Y X . v and others. When I think of modern poets of Lincoln, however, it is Benet or ,, .g . . , - , - - n I , . ,, . . . . . 1 ' 7 . , , . . I Y ,, I nl . . A . . . . , e . , . 1 v ! I -u . I . .

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THE BUPTONIAN because of the mcreasmg and frxghtenlngly unportant soclal problems now at lssue But lf as phllosophers tell us lt IS tlme for the pendulum to swmg back the arlstocracy of Llncoln s humamty may be thelr theme that quahty of understandmg whxch made h1m stand out above hrs fellow men even as xt compelled thelr reverence and love and made h1m a supreme lf lonely ruler of men s hearts THE PERSOINALITY OF LINCOLN, MAN FOR THE AGES D A R Prxze Essay 1931 by Everxtt Sheldon When the name Lmcoln xs mentloned there comes to ones mmd a plc ture of a kxndly charxtable man and an xmpressxon of greatness and domma tlon The fact of hxs greatness IS qulte generally known But the key to hns greatness wxll never be known definltely Nevertheless xt affords a splendxd chance for study There are varymg opmxons as to the source of Lmcoln s greatness Some of the greatest authorltxes on. Llncoln say xt came from his parents Stlll envlronment must have played some great part m the shapmg of hls character The Lmcoln famlly had never had any especlally outstandmg positron in natlonal affalrs They had always been good common cltlzens They were born ln log cablns wxth the blood of ploneers 111 thexr vems They were restless respectable God fearxng people There had been Lmcolns m the Amerlcan Revolutxon and they were fightmg men but there was a stram of Quaker blood 1n them Thomas L1ncoln father of Abraham was a typical Lmcoln He was hospxtable shxftless restless and unsuccessful working now as a carpenter and now as a farmer He could not read or write before hls marrlage He was always poor and like the rolllng stone wlth gathers no moss However hlS defect of shzftlemess has been much over empha. slzed It IS true that he would rathel have people come ask him to do a. job than go hunt one hlmself he was slow and careless wlth quiet manners and he llked to sxt and have h1s own thoughts But he loved his family and tried to provxde for them and 111 every community where he went he became an actlve church member and earned the reputation of being a solid reliable man Now Tom Lmcoln had all h1s lxfe been acquamted of and on wlth the Bush famxly There were four strong and manly sons and two fearless and mtelllgent daughters and Tom knew the famlly to be sturdy and respectable pxoneers l1ke hxmself He passed by the older daughter and gave hxs attention to the younger Sarah But he was unsuccssful here and not long afterward Sarah Bush was marrled to a man named Danlel Johnson Another woman Tom had hrs eye on was a small rather wistful brunette named Nancy Hanks Tom saw her shrewd dark lonesome and rellgious He knew she could read a llttle ln the few books she could find and that she could make her way through a newspaper The courtshlp progressed and after a whxle they were marrxed wlth tlhe feastxng and galety whxch custom arily attended such affalrs mn those days It turned out that Tom had made a. good cholce She was an ldeal wxfe made a happy home and was very mdustrlous and hard worklng And when she had chxldren she proved her self Just as good a mother People who llved near them found her a. very sympathetxc nelghbor and when anyone was nn trouble of any kind she was always ready to do her utmost to help them It was such missionary work as 8 N - 1 1 . . , . . . 1 1 1 1 1 . . . , , ' 11- 11 - - 1 - -- 1 ' - - 1 . . . . , , D , . , . ' , . 1 1 ' - 1 - 1 1 ' ' - 1 1 1 1 ' ' f - - - 1 1 1 ' 1 1 1' , ' . 1 1 - 1 , . 1 ' 1 , , 1 ' 1 1 1 1 - O . ' 1 , - ' 1 1 ' . , - 1 1 ' 1