poetry response #1 - Analyze the ways in which this poem reflects the values of the movement with which it is affiliated.

Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight - Vachel Lindsay (1879)

It is portentous, and a thing of state
That here at midnight, in our little town
A mourning figure walks, and will not rest,
Near the old court-house pacing up and down.

Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards
He lingers where his children used to play,
Or through the market, on the well-worn stones
He stalks until the dawn-stars burn away.

A bronzed, lank man! His suit of ancient black,
A famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl
Make him the quaint great figure that men love,
The prairie-lawyer, master of us all.

He cannot sleep upon his hillside now.
He is among us: -- as in times before!
And we who toss and lie awake for long
Breathe deep, and start, to see him pass the door.

His head is bowed. He thinks on men and kings.
Yea, when the sick world cries, how can he sleep?
Too many peasants fight, they know not why,
Too many homesteads in black terror weep.

The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart.
He sees the dreadnaughts scouring every main.
He carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now
The bitterness, the folly and the pain.

He cannot rest until a spirit-dawn
Shall come; -- the shining hope of Europe free;
The league of sober folk, the Workers' Earth,
Bringing long peace to Cornwall, Alp and Sea.

It breaks his heart that kings must murder still,
That all his hours of travail here for men
Seem yet in vain. And who will bring white peace
That he may sleep upon his hill again?


The “figure” in Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight by Vachel Lindsay represents Abraham Lincoln, and the poetic work as a whole reflects the burden American abolitionists felt to abolish slavery. Lindsay aligns the reader and himself with the abolitionist movement by labeling Lincoln, a revolutionary abolitionist, as “the leader of us all” in the third stanza. The continual use of “us” and “we” in the following stanza further implies we are a part of the anti-slavery movement led by Lincoln because Lincoln experiences the same restlessness over the issue of slavery we experience (Abraham Lincoln “pacing up and down” at midnight in the first stanza and “we who toss and lie awake for long” in the fourth stanza). Thus, the anxious imagery used throughout the poem to describe Lincoln’s distress over slavery and other sins of this world is used to reflect the anxiety other abolitionists similarly felt. Abolitionists’ determination is also reflected by the figure who “will not rest,” paralleling the perseverance of the movement.

A result of the Second Great Awakening, the anti-slavery movement was partly spurred by religion. “Hillside” in the fourth stanza and “hill” in the last stanza allude to the biblical idea of becoming an accurate representation of God’s teachings, or the “city on a hill,” to spread the word of God. Abolitionists felt slavery prevented their population from fulfilling this responsibility, and this sentiment is supported in the poem by Lincoln being on the hillside, rather than on the top of the hill. The last line, “That he may sleep upon his hill again?” further implies they have strayed from their Christian mission and must end slavery to return to the top of the hill.