| Louis Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). Modern American Poetry. 1919. |
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| Vachel Lindsay. 1879– |
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82. The Eagle That Is Forgotten
[John P. Altgeld. Born December 30, 1847; died March 12, 1902.] |
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| SLEEP softly * * * eagle forgotten * * * under the stone. | |
| Time has its way with you there, and the clay has its own. | |
| "We have buried him now," thought your foes, and in secret rejoiced. | |
| They made a brave show of their mourning, their hatred unvoiced. | |
| They had snarled at you, barked at you, foamed at you, day after day, | 5 |
| Now you were ended. They praised you, * * * and laid you away. | |
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| The others that mourned you in silence and terror and truth, | |
| The widow bereft of her pittance, the boy without youth, | |
| The mocked and the scorned and the wounded, the lame and the poor | |
| That should have remembered forever, * * * remember no more. | 10 |
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| Where are those lovers of yours, on what name do they call | |
| The lost, that in armies wept over your funeral pall? | |
| They call on the names of a hundred high-valiant ones, | |
| A hundred white eagles have risen, the sons of your sons, | |
| The zeal in their wings is a zeal that your dreaming began | 15 |
| The valor that wore out your soul in the service of man. | |
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| Sleep softly, * * * eagle forgotten, * * * under the stone, | |
| Time has its way with you there and the clay has its own. | |
| Sleep on, O brave hearted, O wise man, that kindled the flame— | |
| To live in mankind is far more than to live in a name, | 20 |
| To live in mankind, far, far more * * * than to live in a name. | |
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