THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRAKY

ASTOR, LENOX

TILJEN FOUNDATIONS

THE HAND OF LINCOLN-[Continued]

What better than this voiceless cast

To tell of such a one as he,

Since through its living semblance passed
The thought that bade a race be free!
EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN

BARNARD'S STATUE OF LINCOLN

HE clay again has found a dowered hand

THE

To shape a wonder. Lo, the sculptor's art

Has made its last the finest. There he stands A people's idol! This is masterpiece

Of man, as was the loved original

Of God-invention's triumph for life's sake,
Great history featured by great artistry,
A poet's allegory wrought in bronze.

This is a symbol of democracy-
A towering figure risen from the soil
And keeping the earth mould, yet so informed
By spiritual power that they who gaze
Perceive high kinship bearing similar stamp
To One of eld from whom was learned the way
Of wisdom and the love that goes to death.

And this is commonalty glorified

A root out of dry ground, but watered

By those inherent and ancestral streams

Whose springs are in the furthest heavenlies.
And this is nature's haunting miracle-
The lowly dust builded to pinnacles,

The earth-bound soul consorting with the stars.

BARNARD'S STATUE OF LINCOLN-[Continued]
Unshapely feet-but they were such as trod
The winepress of God's judgment on a land,
Were such as clomb, striding through storm and night,
The perilous steeps of right, leading a host.
Ungainly hands-but they were such as plucked
Thistles and planted flowers in their stead,
Were such as struck hell's irons from a race
And open swung barred gates of privilege.
Unsightly back-but it was such as bore
The bruises of a nation's chastisement,
For see, the double cross welted thereon,
The emblem of a statesman's Calvary!
Uncomely face-but it was such as wore
The prints of vigil and the scars of grief,
A face more marred than any man's, save One,
And save that One a face more beautiful.

Those furrows, deftly moulded, came from tears,
The visualising of vicarious pain.

That writhed curve of lips marks forced control,
Restraint of impulse for the sake of duty.
Those intercessory eyes gaze awesomely,
Seeing far off as if they searched God's eyes
For covenant vindication, finding it.
Yon brow, it bears the impress of a Hand
Upon the sculptor's, that historic front
May show receptive to divine ideals,

May signal truth's elect interpreter.

BARNARD'S STATUE OF LINCOLN-[Continued]

So stands he, regnant in triumphant bronze,
A spirit mastering fate by faith and love
And imaging right's lordship o'er the world-
So stands he, Heaven and Earth's great commoner,
God's and the People's, light unto the nations,
Lincoln the deathless, Lincoln the beloved.

LYMAN WHITNEY ALLEN

Dr. Allen's poem of interpretation was read by him, following the presentation address by Hon. William Howard Taft, at the dedication of the statue in Lytle Park, Cincinnati, March 31, 1917.