SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY
Read the poem through from beginning to end. Then go back to the first and study it more carefully. Notice that there is no pause at the end of the first stanza. In the ninth line, mentally put in how after know. Explain what is said about Freedom's training her son. Loftier office: Loftier than what? Note that might is a noun. Mentally insert hand after courtier's. Can you tell from the hand of a person whether he has suffered or not? What does the author mean here by "the weight of Atlas"? What is a "formless grace"? Is the expression appropriate here? What characteristic of Lincoln is referred to in the line beginning "Called mirth"? Are great men so rare as the author seems to think? Why is the cast a good means of telling of "such a one as he"? Look carefully at one of Lincoln's portraits, and then read this poem aloud to yourself.
Compare this poem with the sonnet On the Life-Mask of Abraham Lincoln, page 210.
COLLATERAL READINGS
| Abraham Lincoln: A Short Life | John G. Nicolay |
| The Boys' Life of Lincoln | Helen Nicolay |
| Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln | " " |
| Lincoln the Lawyer | F.T. Hill |
| Passages from the Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln | R.W. Gilder (Ed.) |
| Lincoln's Own Stories | Anthony Gross |
| Lincoln | Norman Hapgood |
| Abraham Lincoln, the Boy and the Man | James Morgan |
| Father Abraham | Ida Tarbell |
| He Knew Lincoln[6] | " " |
| Life of Abraham Lincoln | " " |
| Abraham Lincoln | Robert G. Ingersoll |
| Abraham Lincoln | Noah Brooks |
| Abraham Lincoln for Boys and Girls | C.W. Moores |
| The Graysons | Edward Eggleston |
| The Perfect Tribute[6] | M.R.S. Andrews |
| The Toy Shop[6] | M.S. Gerry |
| We Talked of Lincoln (poem)[7] | E.W. Thomson |
| Lincoln and the Sleeping Sentinel | L.E. Chittenden |
| O Captain, my Captain! | Walt Whitman |
| When Lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloomed | " " |
| Poems | E.C. Stedman |
| An American Anthology | " " " |
| American Authors and their Homes, pp. 157-172 | F.W. Halsey |
| American Authors at Home, pp. 273-291 | J.L. and J.B. Gilder |
For portraits of E.C. Stedman, see Bookman, 34:592; Current Literature, 42:49.