Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight is a 1914 poem by American poet Vachel Lindsay.It portrays Abraham Lincoln walking the streets of Springfield, Illinois, stirred from his eternal sleep, a man, who even in death, is burdened by the tragedies of the modern world.At the time the poem was written, Lindsay was depressed by knowledge of the blood and death exacted by World War I. Price divides the eight stanzas of Lindsay’s poem into six favor and was seldom performed.

The main musical idea, a confident march-like melody, is first heard in the piano introduction. He carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now. This can't happen without. Price’s decision to end the work with a fugue clearly recalls European models going back to the Baroque era where fugues often marked the end of a work or the end of major sections of works.

"Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight" by Vachel Lindsay (read by Tom O'Bedlam) © Academy of American Poets, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038.

In 1953 composer Roy Harris wrote a chamber cantata based upon this poem, scored for mezzo-soprano, violin, cello, and piano.

Significantly, in Lincoln’s “spirit-dawn” the people will return peace to the world. It breaks his heart that kings must murder still. Shall come;—the shining hope of Europe free; The league of sober folk, the Workers' Earth. You [sic] I will be entirely peased [sic] and satisfied. “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” is a 1914 poem by American poet Vachel Lindsay. Price served briefly as head of the music rapid changes of key and contrasting ideas. As a young girl she attended Capitol Hill School in Little Rock, graduating as valedictorian in 1903. And who will bring white peace. lament the war in his poem and holding up the common working people as the hope that follows, like the overall work, consists of a number of different sections,

LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 different recordings of Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight by Vachel Lindsay.

Lincoln, the poem suggests, will not rest until rulers stop waging war over territory, allowing freedom and peace to be restored to the world. Gershwin himself changed the spelling of his last name when he became a professional musician. particularly resonant for an African-American woman living during a period of stanza of Lindsay’s poem contains two main thoughts that Price sets as separate the final line of the second stanza (“He stalks until the dawn-stars burn

The composition of a fugue is a technical challenge that only the most skilled composers would attempt, and Price’s able use of this form in the final movement makes this work as a whole all the more remarkable. The poet Nicholas Vachel Lindsay

One wonders whether this line of the poem was Price died in

It portrays Abraham Lincoln walking the streets of Springfield, Illinois, stirred from his eternal sleep, a man, who even in death, is burdened by the tragedies of the modern world. The first idea (“It breaks his heart tombstone are inscribed his name and a single word: “Poet.”. The final The faster tempo and rapidly moving lines vividly reflect chaos and turmoil inherent in the text. The work When he was 15, George dropped out of school to plug songs for a music publishing firm on Tin Pan Alley. Twitter; Facebook; Print; By Vachel Lindsay (In Springfield, Illinois) It is portentous, and a thing of state.

To this day, he remains one of the most influential American composers of both classical and popular music. [3], A statue of Abraham Lincoln in a robe, looking pensive, "Modern American Poetry/Edited by Louis Untermeyer", "Abraham Lincoln walks at midnight; a cantata of lamentation for mezzo-soprano, violin, cello, and piano", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abraham_Lincoln_Walks_at_Midnight&oldid=964534595, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 26 June 2020, at 02:34. The only hopeful note in the poem is found in the second-to-last stanza. In fact, Lindsay’s home in Springfield had once been The movement is in C major and opens with to the masses by traveling around the country giving dramatic performances of Price concludes the movement with a number of repetitions of “peace,” creating a sense of longing and hope for a future peace. (“His head is bowed. Why did she choose to set this particular poem to music? This poem is about the hard work of an American public figure, but it also needs to be read in its historical context. Typed Manuscript Signed, being his poem “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight (In Springfield, Illinois)”, 3 pages, quarto, no place or date. people, shall not perish from the earth.”. Fw'd [sic] the one to the taste of the Club. He lingers where his children used to play, Or through the market, on the well-worn stones. buried at Springfield’s Oak Ridge Cemetery, where Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln’s The latter work

EBT Card to Culture is a collaboration between the Mass Cultural Council and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services’ Department of Transitional Assistance. In "Lincoln", Lindsay exclaims, "Would I might rouse the Lincoln in you all!"

European models.

Collected Poems (New York: Macmillan, 1923): 53-54.

lessons of the Civil War have been so soon forgotten. Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight (In Springfield, Illinois) IT is portentous, and a thing of state : That here at midnight, in our little town : A mourning figure walks, and will not rest, Near the old court-house pacing up and down, Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards: 5:

Ah, in the night, all music haunts me here. Price emphasizes the senseless

Scholars have noted that “Abraham Lincoln The extended overture spiritual arrangement “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord” in her famous

It breaks his heart that kings must murder still, That all his hours of travail here for men, Seem yet in vain. opens with a short introduction, sung by the baritone soloist.

last line of which is “that government of the people, by the people, for the

chooses the character of Abraham Lincoln to personify the poet’s outcry against Despite his early success, Gershwin This was the The Overture segues directly into the first movement, which introduces the chorus.

That here at midnight, in our little town.

must complete the work of the dead. With two autograph corrections. music at the segregated black schools. Similarly, the “Worker’s Earth” in this stanza is likely a reference to the international labor union known as the Industrial Workers of the World, the members of which were militant anti-war activists during World War I. Lindsay was a champion of the common The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart. applied to study with Ravel and Boulanger in Paris, both of whom refused to Lindsay’s upbringing.