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

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THE BURTONIAN THE BURTONIAN JUNE 1931 LINCOLN IN POETRY D A R Prxze Essay 1931 by Laura Wade Durmg the past few years there has been a new lmpetus for poetry The general pubhc has developed a keen concern and both demanded '1 revxv 11 of the old and more of the new Newspaper controversy a number of new mag azmes and many clubs for the study of poetry are some of the manlfesta tions of thls freshened mterest Poets nn the past have wrxtten of Lmcoln poets today st1ll do so In 188 Wllllam Cullen Bryant wrote hls Memory of Llncoln and m 1928 Stephen Vmcent Benet publxshed John Brown s Body ln whlch Llncoln lS a motlvat mg character It IS llttle wonder that many fine poets have felt the desxre to express thexr feellngs about a man as splendld as Abraham Lmcoln and many poems have been wrltten about hxm more posslbly than about any other one person except Jesus Chrxst Any great figure offers a definlte natural appeal as the subject of a poem and many specxflc detalls of Wlde xnterest ln Llncoln s career afford the wrxter a wealth of mater1al A hero especlally a natlonal hero has a d1st1nct place 1n poetry and may be used to advantage as a specxal vehmcle approprlate to herolc subjects Emphases shlft however The earlxer poems about Lmcoln are those 1n general of hero-worshxppers whlle the later ones have a more 1nt1mate and natural mdeed a human appeal Lmcoln IS an Amerlcan Ideal xn every respect Conslder h1s character how many many vital qualltles of mterest there are none of whxch can be truly dupllcated or overestlrnated H1s personahty too possessed a most human attractlve and magnetlc forcefulness H1s lxfe throughout esp clally Ln h.s earlier days-the true makxng of hxmself both awes and dehchts us The great causes for whlch he hved and dxed the abohtxon of slavery and even more the preservaton of the Union demand expresslon and xnterpreta tlon They make an appeal to every emouon and have called forth some of the best poetry we have When I thlnk of the poetry about Lmeoln I am always remxnded of Walt Whltman He was one of the first poets to break away from all trad1t1onal patterns Crltxcxsm rebuke and protests from the numerous conservatwes were plent1ful The ever present pubhc op1n1on that makes or blasts reputa txons was hard Some people actually felt that It was presumptuous of Whitman to wrlte of Llncoln but Lvncoln 1n hls own tlme and sp c1a1 provlnce was anathematlzed by some of tho e same people Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whltman were both pxoneers and both vsere stubbornly loyal to thexr convxctlons Whxtman must have recognlzed thls common ground and lt was h1s ensulng mterest vwhlch no doubt called forth O Captain My Captam When Lllacs Last ln the Dooryard Bloomed and Hushed Be The Camps Today The first of these three xs probably one of the most heroic and dramatxc works of Amermcan po try A finer trxbute could not be pald Conslder then Whxtman s d1sadvantages the formxng of . . . , , ' c c 1 Z rr- . - , 1 . . . . . 9 1 - '21 . . . U - 11 1 1 . . U , ,, . . . . . - 1 1 1 1 1 . O , 1 . . . , Y . . - 1 1 ' 1 1 - 1 1 , m , 1 . 1 1 - 1 1 I . . . . A . 1 1 - 1 1 -1 . Q . . . .cr . 1 1 1 1 - ' ' 1 1 - 1 1 . . . . . . . D . -- . , ., 1 S , . . . . V 1 . . 4 1 1 . . . . v . H 1 0' t , ' 1 11 u ' - 11 1 1 - , u 11 . . . . 3 1 . . . . , . L , ' 1 1 - w'

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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 . .