A poem by
Walt Whitman, from his
Leaves of Grass. This short and humble piece is the last of the "Memories of
President Lincoln" section, which it inhabits along with its more famous brothers
O Captain! My Captain! and
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd. Unlike the others in that section, this was written in 1871, some 5 years after
Lincoln's death - some of the heartbroken
grief of those earlier is here displaced by calm admiration.
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This dust was once the man,
Gentle, plain, just and resolute, under whose cautious hand,
Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age,
Was saved the Union of these States.