Lincoln & Other Poems

This collection pulses with a poet's passionate conviction that verse can reshape consciousness and stir the soul toward justice. Edwin Markham, among the most celebrated American poets of his era, places Abraham Lincoln at its heart, not as marble monument but as the people's champion, "what we are" made noble. The poems move from this central figure outward to the struggles of laborers, the weight of war, the wrongly accused (including the searing "Dreyfus," addressing one of history's most notorious miscarriages), and the urgent call for integrity in leadership. Markham's voice is not delicate or decorative; it is dramatic, sometimes thunderous, demanding that readers recognize the dignity in every human being who toils and suffers. These are poems written in an age of transformation, when industrialization and the aftermath of the Great War made questions of equity and brotherhood feel desperately immediate. They endure for readers who believe poetry should ignite rather than merely soothe.