Classic Poem

In the multitude that gathered, waiting, watching round the cars,
Did they seek a fair resemblance of Apollo or of Mars?
Did they think the scintillations of a great, undaunted soul
Would surround him with a nimbus or a gleaming aureole?

Did they think, because his spirit has the power to enthuse
The heart of old humanity with larger, grander views,
That the mortal form that shrined it must be cast in finer mold,
Arrayed as fashion dictates, and bedecked with gleaming gold?

Little recks it what ideal their imagination wrought,
Their quest was unavailing for the brilliant form they sought,
But they found a common mortal, in a well-worn coat and hat,
Unpretending, unassuming—it was Greeley for a that.

This should teach the useful lesson men too often over-look,
That we should not by its cover judge the contents of a book.
Horace Greeley is a volume, bound, I own, with little care,
But containing on its pages things unique or very rare.

From my very soul I honor the imperial mind that braves
The despotic laws that fashion makes to regulate her slaves;
And I pity him who never dares to bend or break a rule
That etiquette has taught him in her dull and formal school.