TO THE MEMORY OF RICHARD WATSON GILDER by HELEN GRAY CONE

Now to his name I give this book
Reverent, as placing on an altar-stone
A gift; though slight, not all unmeet -- since he
Served all his years a Soldier of the light:
From those first days when the brave gentle boy,
In passion of service for the land he loved,
Stood by the thunderous guns of Gettysburg,
To those last days of service not less true
In the loud streets and swarming human hives,
The clangor and flare, and all the civic stress
Of his beloved city, -- his and ours,
Where such as he may rear the City of Light.

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