The Irish standard., 1896-10-03
Lincoln and the Poets.


extraordinary memory, says Youths Com
panion. AS he used to say he couldn't
help remembering" MI. Noah Brooks
cites many interesting examples of his
power of retaining things he had once
heard. Zone of my cousins" he says, "John
GoodenoW Of Maine, was appointed consul
general at Constantinople early in the Lin
coin administration, and was taken to the
White House before his departure for his
post to be presented to the President. When
Lincoln learned that his visitor was a
grandson Of John Holmes, one of the first
senators from Maine, he Immediately be-
gan to recite pOetical quotation which
must have been more than a hundred lines
in length.
''Mr Goodenow, never having met the
president before was naturally astOnished
at this OQtburst; and as the recitation went
on and on, suspicion crossed his mind that
Lincoln had suddenly taken leave Of his
wits. But when the lines We're finished
the president said:
There! that poem was quoted by your
grandfather IN speech which he made in
the United States senate in -, and he
named the date and specified the occasion.
''At John Holmes. term in the senate
ended in 1888, and Lincoln probably was
impressed by reading the speech rather
than hearing it, his feat OF memory ap-
pears very remarkable"
He used to say, however, that his happen
to remember a poem was no sign OF any
special liking for it. Once he recited to
Mr.. Brooks a long and doleful ballad. "in
the vein of Wilkins and his Dinah,' land
on finishing said with deprecatory laugh,
81 don't believe have thought Of that be-
fore for forty years.
At the same time ne was great lover
of simple and hearty verse. One Of his fav-
ortes was Doctor Holmes sLast Leaf"
Concerning this poem Mr.: Brooks says:
Zone November day Lincoln and were
driving out to the Soldiers Home, near
Washington, when the aspect of the scene
recalled the lines to his mind. Slowly and
with excellent judgment he recited the
whole poem. Enlarg:ng upon the pathos,
wit and humor of Holmes, found that the
president had never seen a copy of the
genial Doctors works, SO far as he could
remember l offered to lend him my copy
Of the poems, a little blue and gold book;
and the next time went to the White
House took it with me.
about a week afterward called one
evening, and the president being alone, we
settled down for a quiet chat. He took
from drawer in his table the blue and gold
Holmes and went over it with much gusto,
reading or reciting several poems that had
struck his fancy.
Finally he said that he liked Lexington
as we'll as anything in the book, The Last
Leaf alone excepted and he began toread
the poem; but when he came to the stanza
II
Green be the graves where the martyrs are
%. lying!
Shroudless and tombless they sunk to their
rest,
his voice faltered, and he gave me the
book with the whispered request You read
it, I can't ],
Months afterward, when several ladies
were in the red parlor, calling upon Mrs.
lincoln, he recited that poem without miss
ing word, so far as could remember it.
And yet do not believe that he ever saw
the text Of Lexington except during the
few busy days when he had my book ~ IL
Mr.. Brooks furnishes also pretty story
about Lincoln's first hearing Of one Of
Longfellow's poems. X .ss 81 .5z
Il think it was early in the war that
some public speaker sent Mr.. Lincoln a
newspaper report OF speech delivered in
New York. The president, apparently IN, did
not pay much attention to the speech, Int
d, few lines pf verse at. the close caught His
eye There were the. ssttanzas III