StoryTitle("caps", "Mortality") ?>
(by William Knox, 1789-1825) is always quoted as
Lincoln's favourite poem.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "O why should the spirit of mortal be proud?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Like a fast-flitting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He passes from life to his rest in the grave.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Be scattered around and together be laid;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the young and the old, and the low and the high,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall moulder to dust and together shall lie.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The child that a mother attended and loved,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The mother that infant's affection that proved,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The husband that mother and infant that blessed,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Each, all, are away to their dwelling of rest.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shone beauty and pleasure,—her triumphs are by;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the memory of those that beloved her and praised", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Are alike from the minds of the living erased.", "") ?>
PagePoem(324, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The hand of the king that the scepter hath borne,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The brow of the priest that the miter hath worn,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The peasant whose lot was to sow and to reap,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The herdsman who climbed with his goats to the steep,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The beggar that wandered in search of his bread,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Have faded away like the grass that we tread.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The saint that enjoyed the communion of heaven,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The sinner that dared to remain unforgiven,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So the multitude goes, like the flower and the weed", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That wither away to let others succeed;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So the multitude comes, even those we behold,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To repeat every tale that hath often been told.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For we are the same that our fathers have been;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We see the same sights that our fathers have seen,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We drink the same stream, and we feel the same sun,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And we run the same course that our fathers have run.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The thoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the death we are shrinking from, they too would shrink;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To the life we are clinging to, they too would cling;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But it speeds from the earth like a bird on the wing.", "") ?>
PagePoem(325, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They loved, but their story we cannot unfold;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They scorned, but the heart of the haughty is cold;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They grieved, but no wail from their slumbers may come;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They enjoyed, but the voice of their gladness is dumb.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They died, ay! they died! and we things that are now,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who walk on the turf that lies over their brow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who make in their dwellings a transient abode,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Meet the changes they met on their pilgrimage road.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Yea! hope and despondence, and pleasure and pain,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Are mingled together like sunshine and rain;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the smile and the tear, and the song and the dirge,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Still follow each other, like surge upon surge.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "O why should the spirit of mortal be proud?", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("William Knox.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>