Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.

Personal Poems

Samuel J. Tilden

ONCE more, O all-adjusting Death!

The nation’s Pantheon opens wide;

Once more a common sorrow saith

A strong, wise man has died.

Faults doubtless had he. Had we not

Our own, to question and asperse

The worth we doubted or forgot

Until beside his hearse?

Ambitious, cautious, yet the man

To strike down fraud with resolute hand;

A patriot, if a partisan,

He loved his native land.

So let the mourning bells be rung,

The banner droop its folds half way,

And while the public pen and tongue

Their fitting tribute pay,

Shall we not vow above his bier

To set our feet on party lies,

And wound no more a living ear

With words that Death denies?

1886.