AS one by one withdraw the lofty actors
From that great play on history’s stage eternal,
That lurid, partial act of war and peace—of old and new contending,
Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, and many a long suspense;
All past—and since, in countless graves receding, mellowing
Victor and vanquished—Lincoln’s and Lee’s—now thou with them,
Man of the mighty day—and equal to the day!
Thou from the prairies?—and tangled and many veined and hard has been thy part,
To admiration has it been enacted!