Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
The Centoaph
By James Thomson McKay (1843–1890)On the Final Burial of Lincoln at Springfield, 14 April, 1887.
A
Has any creature thought of Lincoln hid
In any vault, ’neath any coffin-lid,
In all the years since that wild Spring of pain?
’Tis false,—he never in the grave hath lain.
You could not bury him although you slid
Upon his clay the Cheops pyramid
Or heaped it with the Rocky Mountain chain.
They slew themselves; they but set Lincoln free.
In all the earth his great heart beats as strong,
Shall beat while pulses throb to chivalry
And burn with hate of tyranny and wrong.
Whoever will may find him, anywhere
Save in the tomb. Not there,—he is not there!
The Century Magazine. 1890.