.
President Lincoln, I've been thinkin'
When you were a tiny babe
As a youth you told the truth,
So people called you "Honest Abe."

You grew up as tough as nails.
On the farm, you swung your arm,
And with an axe, you split the rails!

President Lincoln, I've been thinkin'
How you taught yourself the law.
Every book around you took,
And read like no one ever saw!

President Lincoln, I've been thinkin'
Back to when you wrote the E-
Mancipation Proclamation
So the slaves could all be free.

President Lincoln, I've been thinkin'
How you bravely led the land.
Once divided, now united,
You made sure our house would stand!


Lincoln

Nancy Byrd Turner

There was a boy of other days,
A quiet, awkward, earnest lad,
Who trudged long weary miles to get
A book on which his heart was set -
And then no candle had!

He was too poor to buy a lamp
But very wise in woodmen's ways.
He gathered seasoned bough and stem,
And crisping leaf, and kindled them
Into a ruddy blaze.

Then as he lay full length and read,
The firelight flickered on his face,
And etched his shadow on the gloom,
And made a picture in the room,
In that most humble place.

The hard years came, the hard years went,
But, gentle, brave, and strong of will,
He met them all. And when today
We see his pictured face, we say,
"There's light upon it still."


The Youthful Lincoln

Margaret E. Bruner

When Lincoln was a growing boy,
He had few books - not any toy;
He had no lovely shaded light
That he could read beneath at night.

And yet he had the will to learn,
And while the fire logs would burn,
Beside their blaze he often read,
Before he sought his humble bed.

And if perhaps we pause when we
Grow tired, and think of hardships he
Endured, and yet grew kind and strong,
We shall not be discouraged long.


As One Lad to Another

Alice Crowell Hoffman

I wish we'd been boys together,
Abe Lincoln, I really do;
Somehow I cannot help thinking
I'd have learned so much from you.

You studied under conditions
That might well have made me quail;
In your quest for education
You knew not a word like fail.

And you always made the utmost
Of everything that you had;
You saw a lot of fun in life
And you joked when you were sad.

You were ever true and earnest,
And you saw so much of good
In folks whom others slighted -
You sensed man's brotherhood.

Though life denies that I should be
A boy, dear Abe, with you,
I still can try with all my might
To be a boy like you.