Publication information
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Source: Toledo Bee
Source type: newspaper
Document type: poem
Document title: “The Nation’s Grief”
Author(s): MacManus, Theodore F.
City of publication: Toledo, Ohio
Date of publication: 14 September 1901
Volume number: 26
Issue number: none
Pagination: 4

 
Citation
MacManus, Theodore F. “The Nation’s Grief.” Toledo Bee 14 Sept. 1901 v26: p. 4.
 
Transcription
full text
 
Keywords
William McKinley (mourning: poetry); William McKinley (death: poetry).
 
Named persons
none.
 
Notes
The following note appears immediately beneath the poem: “These stirring lines, on the death of the nation’s beloved chief magistrate, were written today by Mr. Theodore F. MacManus, for C. A. King & Co’s. market circular. No other matter appears in the circular today.”
 
Document

 

The Nation’s Grief

HOT with the tears that choke and blind,
Bear with us, Lord, ’till we be resigned.
Our hearts are human—he was our chief—
Bear with the anger that mars our grief.
Time! O, Lord, till the fight be won—
Time, to falter “Thy will be done.”

Made kind by sorrow, with joy elate,
We had thought, O Lord, to watch and wait
’Till the mists of doubt had cleared away,
That we might come to his couch and say:
“Son of the people, arise and see
A nation made One by sympathy.”

And now, O Lord, we are at his bier—
We cry aloud, but he cannot hear!
Our love unspoken, our message lost,
In heart and brain we are tempest-tos’t.
Time! O Lord, ’till the fight be won—
Time, to falter “Thy will be done!”

Toledo, O., Sept. 14, 1901.

 

 


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