Cool Tombs / The Ship of State

COOL TOMBS

When Abraham Lincoln was shoveled into the tombs, he forgot the
Copperheads and the assassin…in the dust, in the cool tombs.

And Ulysses Grant lost all thought of con men and Wall street,
Cash and collateral turned ashes…in the dust, in the cool tombs.

Pocahontas’ body, lovely as a poplar, sweet as a red haw
In November or a pawpaw in May…did she wonder?
Does she remember?...in the dust, in the cool tombs?

Take any streetful of people buying clothes and groceries,
Cheering a hero or throwing confetti and blowing tin horns…
Tell me if the lovers are losers…tell me if any get more
Than the lovers…in the dust, in the cool tombs.

Carl Sandburg


SHIP OF STATE

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope
What anvils rang, what hammers beat
In what a forge and what heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
‘T is of the wave and not the rock,
‘T is but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest’s roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith, triumphant o’er our fears,
Are all with thee,---are all with thee!

H. W. Longfellow