Abraham Lincoln once said he would give anything, even incur debt to be able to write poetry. His favorite poem was “Mortality” by William Knox. One of Lincoln’s most noted poems describes a visit to his childhood home titled “My Childhood Home I See Again.”
This poem is divided into two cantos; the first canto consists of ten stanzas, and the second canto consists of thirteen stanzas. Each stanza has the rime scheme, ABAB.
Canto 1: “My childhood’s home I see again”
The first canto opens with the speaker reporting that he is visiting his “childhood’s home.” He becomes sad as poignant memories flood his mind. But he also finds that “There's pleasure in it too.”
In the second stanza, he muses about the nature of memory, portraying it as a “midway world / 'Twixt earth and paradise.” But in this earthly paradise, “things decay[] and loved ones lost / In dreamy shadows rise.”
Stanzas three through five continue to muse about the nature of memory, how it transforms scenes into an “enchanted isle, / All bathed in liquid light.” And memory will “hallow all / We've known, but know no more.”
In stanzas six through ten, the speaker reports that he has been away from the childhood home for twenty years, that now there are fewer of his former friends remaining, and the ones left have changed as “time has sped.” And half of them have died, while many others went from “Young childhood grown” to “strong manhood gray.”
The surviving friends inform him about the deaths of their former friends, and the speaker then walks through the fields thinking as he paces what seem to be “hollow rooms,” and the situation renders him so melancholy that thinks he is “living in the tombs.”
Canto 2: “But here's an object more of dread”
The speaker begins Canto 2 by comparing the sadness of the grave to the sadness of one whose mind is gone while his body still lives on: “But here's an object more of dread / Than ought the grave contains— / A human form with reason fled, / While wretched life remains.”
He is dramatizing the sorrowful event of young man he knew, named Matthew Gentry. Matthew was a bright young man, son of a wealthy family, but at age nineteen he unaccountably went mad: “Poor Matthew! Once of genius bright, / A fortune-favored child— / Now locked for aye, in mental night, / A haggard mad-man wild.”
The rest of the canto presents a portrayal of poor Matthew’s mad ravings, how he hurt himself, fought with father, and nearly killed his mother. The speaker muses and speculates as the reports each disturbing scene.
In the final stanza, the speaker personifies and addresses Death, asking him why he takes the healthy-minded and leaves this mentally defective “lingering”: “O death! Thou awe-inspiring prince, / That keepst the world in fear; / Why dost thou tear more blest ones hence, / And leave him ling'ring here?”
Lincoln and Poetry
Abraham Lincoln loved poetry, so it is little wonder that he would try his hand at it. He doubted that the could ever be a poet, but he had the temperament and skill with words that leaves little doubt that his scribbling is the stuff of poetry.
Other Lincoln articles:
November Poet – Vachel Lindsay: “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight”
