Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TWO LIVES. PART 2: 19 by WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD

First Line: WE FOUND HIM DEAD ONE MORN BETWEEN THE SHEETS
Last Line: WHOSE OWN WIFE WENT THE WAY OF MINE -- OF MINE. . .

We found him dead one morn between the sheets . . .
The veterans of his legions came and took;
And there was martial music down the streets,
And at the grave the reading of the Book, --
Unto the earth they gave him with his sword,
With the rent flag of battles south and west;
And his commission (laid across his breast)
Bore name of Lincoln, as his overlord.
So let me leave him: he was old and ill,
And his white house had wrought upon his brain;
So let me leave him, or as hearing still
His talk of Shakespeare even in his pain . . .
Good night, grim comrade (a deep sleep be thine!),
Whose own wife went the way of mine -- of mine. . .



Home: PoetryExplorer.net