Nancy Hanks

Prairie Child,

Brief as dew,

What winds of wonder

Nourished you?

Rolling plain

Of billowy green,

Fair horizons,

Blue, serene.

Lofty skies

The slow clouds climb,

Where burning stars

Beat out the time.

These, and the dreams

Of fathers bold,

Baffled longings

Hopes untold.

Gave to you

A heart of fire,

Love like waters,

Brave desire.

Ah, when youth's rapture

Went out in pain,

And all seemed over,

Was all in vain?

O soul obscure,

Whose wings life bound,

And soft death folded

Under the ground.

Wilding lady,

Still and true,

Who gave us Lincoln

And never knew:

To you at last

Our praise, our tears,

Love and a song

Through the nation's years.

Mother of Lincoln,

Our tears, our praise;

A battle-flag

And the victor's bays!

THE RAIL SPLITTER
From the "Footprints of Abraham Lincoln"