To the Spirit of Abraham Lincoln27
(Reunion at Gettysburg Twenty-Five Years After the Battle)
BY RICHARD WATSON GILDER
1888
Shade of our greatest, O look down to day!
Here the long, dread midsummer battle roared,
And brother in brother plunged the accursed sword;—
Here foe meets foe once more in proud array
Yet not as once to harry and to slay
But to strike hands, and with sublime accord
Weep tears heroic for the souls that soared
Quick from earth’s carnage to the starry way.
Each fought for what he deemed the people’s good,
And proved his bravery with his offered life,
And sealed his honor with his outpoured blood;
But the Eternal did direct the strife,
And on this sacred field one patriot host
Now calls thee father,—dear, majestic ghost!
Notes
27 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company.