Classic Poem

DEDICATED TO MRS. JAMES A. GARFIELD .

The fountain gives birth to the stream,
The stream glides on to the sea;
The sun looks down, and its beam
Lifts moisture to gladden the lea;
The hills and the mountains rejoice,
The valleys with deep verdure lined;
One chorus the elements voice —
With love every law is entwined.

The rose leans over the brook,
And blushes its beauty to trace;
The waters, entranced in a nook,
Delight in the glow of its face.
Then onward through grasses and ferns
The rill laughs at stones in its way;
New charm to the woodland returns,
The mosses are jewelled with spray.

There is nothing that lives to itself,
Be it ever so near or so far,
From the weed on the sea's coral shelf
To the fleck of the farthermost star;
No atom removed or estranged,
No minute divorced from the hours,
Blind force is to sympathy changed,
And each link is enwoven with flowers.

No life is so strong and complete
But it yearns for the smile of a friend;
A remembrance is always more sweet
When love and kind wishes attend.
Your red-lipped roses still speak,
Your blossoms, carnation and white —
But alas! my tribute is weak;
I bring but a pansy to-night —

To fade; but your garlands remain,
Unwithered your chaplet survives;
No deed can be idle or vain
That strengthens or sweetens our lives;
And richer the token to me
From the dear alma mater of one
Revered from the lakes to the sea,
Your lover and brother and son.

His life has flowed down to the deep,
His record enriches the earth,
And memory's roses shall keep
Their bloom where the stream had its birth.
The voice of our Garfield is still,
But the word of the man cannot die;
His courage our pulses enthrill,
Our dreams to his manhood reply.