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Title: William Mckinley
Author: James Whitcomb Riley [
More Titles by Riley]
CANTON, OHIO, SEPTEMBER 30, 1907
He said: "It is God's way:
His will, not ours be done."
And o'er our land a shadow lay
That darkened all the sun.
The voice of jubilee
That gladdened all the air,
Fell sudden to a quavering key
Of suppliance and prayer.
He was our chief--our guide--
Sprung of our common Earth,
From youth's long struggle proved and tried
To manhood's highest worth:
Through toil, he knew all needs
Of all his toiling kind--
The favored striver who succeeds--
The one who falls behind.
The boy's young faith he still
Retained through years mature--
The faith to labor, hand and will,
Nor doubt the harvest sure--
The harvest of man's love--
A nation's joy that swells
To heights of Song, or deeps whereof
But sacred silence tells.
To him his Country seemed
Even as a Mother, where
He rested--slept; and once he dreamed--
As on her bosom there--
And thrilled to hear, within
That dream of her, the call
Of bugles and the clang and din
Of war.... And o'er it all
His rapt eyes caught the bright
Old Banner, winging wild
And beck'ning him, as to the fight ...
When--even as a child--
He wakened--And the dream
Was real! And he leapt
As led the proud Flag through a gleam
Of tears the Mother wept.
His was a tender hand--
Even as a woman's is--
And yet as fixed, in Right's command,
As this bronze hand of his:
This was the Soldier brave--
This was the Victor fair--
This is the Hero Heaven gave
To glory here--and There.
[The end]
James Whitcomb Riley's poem: William Mckinley
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