Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom, and Charley,
The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter?
All, all, are sleeping on the hill.
One passed in a fever,
One was burned in a mine,
One was killed in a brawl,
One died in jail,
One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife—
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie, and Edith,
The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one?—
All, all, are sleeping on the hill.
One died in shameful child-birth,
One of a thwarted love,
One at the hands of a brute in a brothel,
One of a broken pride, in a search for a heart’s desire,
One after life in faraway London and Paris
Was brought to her little space by Ella and Kate and Mag—
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
Where are Uncle Issac and Aunt Emily,
And old Towny Kincaid and Sevigne Houghton,
And Major Walker who had talked
With veneravle men of the revolution?—
All, all, are sleeping on the hill.
They brought them dead sons from the war,
And daughters whom life had crushed,
And their children fatherless, crying—
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
Where is old Fiddler Jones
Who played with life all his ninety years,
Braving the sleet with bared breast,
Drinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife nor kin,
Nor gold, nor love, nor heaven?
Lo! he babbles of the fish-frys of long ago,
Of the horse-races long ago at Clary’s Grove,
Of what Abe Lincoln said
One time at Springfield.
(Edgar Lee Masters)
More Poetry from Edgar Lee Masters:
Edgar Lee Masters Poems based on Topics: Life, Soul, Love, War & Peace, Thought & Thinking, Heaven, Gold, Sleep, Happiness, Pride, Desire- Epilogue (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- The Spooniad (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- Samson And Delilah (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- The Temple (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- Silence (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- America (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Love Poems, Life Poems, Soul Poems, War & Peace Poems, Heaven Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems, Sleep Poems, Happiness Poems, Gold Poems, Pride Poems, Desire PoemsBased on Keywords: springfield, babbles, bert, charley, wife-, fatherless, lizzie, faraway, mag, abe, edith
- The Vision Of Piers Plowman - Part 14 (William Langland Poems)
- Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind. In Three Cantos. - Canto I. (Matthew Prior Poems)
- Convict Once - Part Second. (James Brunton Stephens Poems)
- Hermann And Dorothea - IX. Urania (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Poems)
- The Believer's Espousals : Chapter I. (Ralph Erskine Poems)