THE MONUMENT OF GREELEY
His one last foe's insatiate hiss
On that benignant shade would follow!
Peace! while we shroud this man of men
Let no unhallowed word be spoken!
He will not answer thee again,
His mouth is sealed, his wand is broken.
Some holier cause, some vaster trust
Beyond the veil, he doth inherit:
O gently, Earth, receive his dust,
And Heaven soothe his troubled spirit!
December 3, 1872.
THE MONUMENT OF GREELEY
Read at the Unveiling of the Bust surmounting the Printers' Monument to Horace Greeley, Greenwood Cemetery, December 4, 1876
Once more, dear mother Earth, we stand
In reverence where thy bounty gave
Our brother, yielded to thy hand,
The sweet protection of the grave!
Well hast thou soothed him through the years,
The years our love and sorrow number,—
And with thy smiles, and with thy tears,
Made green and fair his place of slumber.
Thine be the keeping of that trust;
And ours this image, born of Art
To shine above his hidden dust,
What time the sunrise breezes part
The trees, and with new life enwreathe
Yon head,—until the lips are golden,
And from them music seems to breathe
As from the desert statue olden.
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