In Shame and Grief

(On the death of President McKinley.)

Again Columbia’s head is lowly bowed.
     In shame and grief before the world she stands—
In shame that foulest murder laughs aloud
     And taunts her helplessness with crimsoned hands.

In grief that he should fall, her noble son
     Whose faith and love went out to all his kind—
Whose wealth of honors all humanely won
     Could wake no envious Cain in human mind.

That brute may yet in God-like image move
     ’Mong men and do the work that hell commands,
This treacherous stroke doth once more dearly prove
     In deed that thrills with horror all the lands.

For pagan souls with Christian feel the shock
     That, following round the earth th’ electric wave,
Makes faith in man a lightning-shattered rock
     As stunned we stand beside our chieftain’s grave.