Sonnet in 18625
By John James Piatt
Stern be the Pilot in the dreadful hour
When a great nation, like a ship at sea
With the wroth breakers whitening at her lee,
Feels her last shudder if her Helmsman cower;
A godlike manhood be his mighty dower!
Such and so gifted, Lincoln, may’st thou be
With thy high wisdom’s low simplicity
And awful tenderness of voted power:
From our hot records then thy name shall stand
On Time’s calm ledger out of passionate days—
With the pure debt of gratitude begun,
And only paid in never-ending praise—
One of the many of a mighty Land,
Made by God’s providence the Anointed One.
Notes
5 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company.