Prairie Child,
Brief as dew,
What winds of wonder
Nourished you?
Rolling plain
Of billowy green,
Fair horizons,
Blue, serene.
Lofty skies
The slow clouds climb,
Where burning stars
Beat out the time.
These, and the dreams
Of fathers bold,
Baffled longings
Hopes untold.
Gave to you
A heart of fire,
Love like waters,
Brave desire.
Ah, when youth's rapture
Went out in pain,
And all seemed over,
Was all in vain?
O soul obscure,
Whose wings life bound,
And soft death folded
Under the ground.
Wilding lady,
Still and true,
Who gave us Lincoln
And never knew:
To you at last
Our praise, our tears,
Love and a song
Through the nation's years.
Mother of Lincoln,
Our tears, our praise;
A battle-flag
And the victor's bays!
[Illustration: THE RAIL SPLITTER