A TOKEN
Our land’s first lady’s in her grave. She lives
Far from the tumult of the world,
Where those great deeds of love wreck not the health,
But are in tomes of gold impearled.
A noble sacrifice to life she made,
Wherein her tasks outdid her strength.
What pity, then, that she must leave so soon,
Ere that her life had reached its length.
A gracious mother and a loyal wife,
Cherished by all both far and near,
Let her rare life shine o’er our weeping land;
Let her great name be ever dear!
Dear President! With thee a nation mourns
And sheds kind teardrops on her bier,
For thou hast lost the goodliest wife of earth
And art left ’lone, disconsolate, here.