William McKinley—A Player’s Tribute

(Written for THE THEATRE.)

From your slumber, dull world, hear the bells as they toll
     From out tower and steeple and dome,
               For the President’s dead!
               Ah, toll, toll on,
     For a soul that has gone to its home.

Oh, thou grand one; so noble, so tender, so strong,
     So wise and gentle, so brave!
               Be the sob of a nation
               Thy funeral dirge,
     And our tears rest as dew on thy grave.

We murmur in reverence thy well-beloved name,
     And in awe and in grief bow the head;
               All lowered the voices,
               Soft muffled the tread,
     For McKinley, the hero, is dead.

Could ever a life be more lovely than thine,
     A death more serene when ’twas done?
               Thy simple, grand faith
               Should endure for all time—
     Thy “God’s will, and not ours, be done.”