N

Photograph by Brady, Washington, D. C., 1864]

Paul Lawrence Dunbar, born of negro parents at Dayton, Ohio, June 27,
1872. Was graduated at the Dayton High School in 1891, and since then
has devoted himself to literature and journalism. He has written _Oak
and Ivy_ (poems); _Lyrics of Lowly Life_ (poems), and _The Uncalled_
(a novel). Since 1898 he has been on the staff of the Librarian of
Congress.

LINCOLN

Hurt was the Nation with a mighty wound,
And all her ways were filled with clam'rous sound.
Wailed loud the South with unremitting grief,
And wept the North that could not find relief.
Then madness joined its harshest tone to strife:
A minor note swelled in the song of life
Till, stirring with the love that filled his breast,
But still, unflinching at the Right's behest
Grave Lincoln came, strong-handed, from afar,--
The mighty Homer of the lyre of war!
'Twas he who bade the raging tempest cease,
Wrenched from his strings the harmony of peace,
Muted the strings that made the discord,--Wrong,
And gave his spirit up in thund'rous song.
Oh, mighty Master of the mighty lyre!
Earth heard and trembled at thy strains of fire:
Earth learned of thee what Heaven already knew,
And wrote thee down among her treasured few!

[Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN

Photograph by Gardner, Washington, D. C., 1865]

Alice Cary was born in Mount Healthy, near Cincinnati, Ohio, April 20,
1820. Her first book of poems, with her sister Phoebe, was published
in 1850. Her poems and prose writings were pictures from life and
nature, among which were _Pictures of Memory_, _Mulberry Hill_,
_Coming Home_ and _Nobility_. She died at her home in New York City,
February 12, 1871. This poem is inscribed to the _London Punch_.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

No glittering chaplet brought from other lands!
As in his life, this man, in death, is ours;
His own loved prairies o'er his "gaunt, gnarled hands,"
Have fitly drawn their sheet of summer flowers!

What need hath he now of a tardy crown,
His name from mocking jest and sneer to save
When every plowman turns his furrow down
As soft as though it fell up