I looked like Abraham Lincoln. <br />I was one of you, Spoon River, in all fellowship, <br />But standing for the rights of property and for order. <br />A regular church attendant, <br />Sometimes appearing in your town meetings to warn you <br />Against the evils of discontent and envy, <br />And to denounce those who tried to destroy the Union, <br />And to point to the peril of the Knights of Labor. <br />My success and my example are inevitable influences <br />In your young men and in generations to come, <br />In spite of attacks of newspapers like the Clarion; <br />A regular visitor at Springfield, <br />When the Legislature was in session, <br />To prevent raids upon the railroads, <br />And the men building up the state. <br />Trusted by them and by you, Spoon River, equally <br />In spite of the whispers that I was a lobbyist. <br />Moving quietly through the world, rich and courted. <br />Dying at last, of course, but lying here <br />Under a stone with an open book carved upon it <br />And the words "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." <br />And now, you world-savers, who reaped nothing in life <br />And in death have neither stones nor epitaphs, <br />How do you like your silence from mouths stopped <br />With the dust of my triumphant career?<br /><br />Edgar Lee Masters<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/elliott-hawkins/
