However practical a man may be--however deeply he may be engrossed in
pursuits that would seem to be almost as barren of poetry as a city
pavement is of verdure--there is some chord in his heart that the right
poet may strike and fill his soul with melody. There is scarcely a man in
any walk of life who has not at some time in his life come upon a poem
which seemed to voice his own ideals.
In the private office of President Roosevelt, in the White House, hangs,
in the handwriting of its author, a poem by the late Senator John J.
Ingalls, of Kansas. The title of the poem is "Opportunity." This framed
manuscript and a portrait of President Lincoln are the only objects on the
walls of the apartment.
In singular contrast with the favorite poem of Theodore Roosevelt is that
of Abraham Lincoln--"Oh, Why Should the Spirit of Mortal Be Proud?" by
William Knox. Lincoln cut the poem from a newspaper and committed it to
memory. Several years later he said to a friend: "I would give a great
deal to know who wrote it, but I have never been able to ascertain."
Subsequently he learned that the author was Knox, a Scottish poet, who
died in 1825.