Nancy Lincoln's Grave

[Anita]

Thank you Gene and to all who posted these moving poems honoring Nancy Hanks. Here's another.

"In 1909, as Chicago and the country were celebrating the centennial of Lincoln’s birth, Monroe was thinking of the woman who had borne him. Her poem “Nancy” appeared in Century Magazine in an issue dedicated to Lincoln.[41] It is the first widely read verse on Lincoln’s mother.[42] It had been Monroe’s friend and colleague Ida Tarbell who renewed interest in Nancy Hanks, having boldly challenged Herndon’s accusations about her illegitimacy and promiscuity. Monroe’s Hanks is a product of nature, tragic for not being able to experience her son’s future greatness; she died when Abraham was just nine years old." Go here to read an the entire article "Harriet Monroe's Abraham Lincoln" https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/262986...w=fulltext

Nancy Hanks by Harriet Monroe

Prairie child,
Brief as dew,
What winds of wonder
Nourished you?

Rolling plains
Of billowy green,
Far horizons,
Blue, serene;

Lofty skies
The slow clouds climb,
Where burning stars
Beat out the time:

These, and the dreams
Of fathers bold,
Baffled longings,
Hopes untold,

Gave to you
A heart of fire,
Love like deep waters,
Brave desire.

Ah, when youth's rapture
Went out in pain,
And all seemed over,
Was all in vain?

O soul obscure,
Whose wings life bound,
And soft death folded
Under the ground;

Wilding lady,
Still and true,
Who gave us Lincoln
And never knew:

To you at last
Our praise, our tears,
Love and a song
Through The nation’s years!

Mother of Lincoln,
Our tears, our praise;
A battle-flag
And the victor's bays!