Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight

Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight: analysis

Introduction

"Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight" imagines the ghost of Lincoln pacing the streets of "our little town" at night. A one-line heading places the scene in Springfield, Illinois, where Lincoln, the sixteenth president, had lived and practised law. He walks near the court-house, his old home and the market, and cannot rest.

The cause of his unrest is a world at war. Kings and war-lords still kill, and peasants "fight, they know not why." The poem ends by asking who will bring the peace that would let him "sleep upon his hill again."

Summary

A heading sets the scene: "In Springfield, Illinois." The speaker says it is a grave and ominous matter that a mourning figure walks here at midnight. He will not rest. He paces up and down near the old court-house.

He also lingers by his old homestead, where his children used to play. He walks through the market on the worn stones. He stays until "the dawn-stars burn away."

The speaker describes him: "A bronzed, lank man!" He wears an old black suit, a famous high top-hat and a plain, worn shawl. These make him the "quaint, great figure that men love." He is "The prairie-lawyer, master of us all."

He cannot sleep upon his hillside now. He is among the townspeople, as he was in times before. Those who lie awake at night catch their breath and start when they see him pass the door.

His head is bowed, and he thinks about men and kings. The speaker asks how he can sleep when the sick world cries. Too many peasants fight without knowing why. Too many homes weep "in black terror."

The sins of the war-lords burn his heart. He sees the dreadnaughts "scouring every main." On his shoulders he carries "The bitterness, the folly and the pain."

He cannot rest until a "spirit-dawn" comes. The speaker describes it as "the shining hope of Europe free." It would bring a league of sober people and a "Workers' Earth." It would bring long peace to farmland, mountain and sea.

It breaks his heart that kings must still murder. All his hours of labour for people "Seem yet in vain." The poem ends with a question: who will bring "white peace" so that he may sleep upon his hill again?

Themes and meaning

The first theme is the dead who cannot rest while wrongs continue. Lincoln "will not rest" and "cannot sleep upon his hillside now." His grave is pictured as a sleep that has been broken. The reason is not his own past but the present: "when the sick world cries, how can he sleep?" The poem makes him a conscience that returns when the world goes wrong.

A second theme is war and its victims. Stanzas 6 and 7 turn from the town to the world. There are "peasants" who "fight, they know not why" and homes that weep "in black terror." The "war-lords" and "kings" are to blame. The poem sides with ordinary people against rulers.

A third theme is unfinished work. The last stanza says Lincoln's "hours of travail here for men / Seem yet in vain." The word "yet" leaves room for hope. His labour is not lost, but it is not complete while kings "murder still."

A fourth theme is hope for a new order. Stanza 8 imagines "a spirit-dawn," "Europe free," "The league of sober folk" and "the Workers' Earth." These phrases picture peace built by ordinary people, not by kings. The hope is stated as a future that has not arrived.

A fifth theme is the local and the worldwide. The poem begins in "our little town," with a court-house and market. It ends with Europe, the seas and "Cornland, Alp and Sea." A figure bound to one prairie town carries the troubles of the whole world.

Tone

The tone is solemn and elegiac. The opening line calls the ghost's walk "portentous, and a thing of state," words of public gravity. The measured rhythm keeps the voice dignified throughout.

Lines 10 to 13 grow warm and admiring. "A bronzed, lank man!" is an exclamation of affection. Details such as the "high top-hat" and "plain worn shawl" treat Lincoln as familiar and dear.

From stanza 6 the tone darkens into grief and anger at the world's rulers. "The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart" is a strong moral charge. Stanza 8 lifts briefly into hope. The final question returns to sorrow, leaving the ending unresolved but longing for peace.

Form and structure

The poem has 33 lines in 9 stanzas. The first is a single-line heading, and the other 8 stanzas are quatrains of 4 lines. The metre is iambic pentameter, five rising beats to the line. It is very regular: nearly every line has 10 syllables, and the full range is 8 to 11.

In each quatrain the second and fourth lines rhyme, as with "town" and "down" in line 3 and line 5. The first and third lines do not rhyme. Dashes after colons at line 15 and line 27 mark strong pauses. The steady form suits the ghost's slow, pacing walk.

Poetic devices

Setting line 1

In Springfield, Illinois The heading places the poem in a real town. It turns "our little town" into Lincoln's own home ground.

Formal diction line 2

a thing of state The phrase treats the ghost's walk as a matter of public importance. It sets a grave, official tone.

Imagery line 4

A mourning figure walks, and will not rest Lincoln is first seen only as a grieving shape. The line introduces the restlessness that drives the poem.

Imagery line 9

until the dawn-stars burn away He walks until the last stars vanish into daylight. The image marks the full length of his sleepless night.

Exclamation line 10

A bronzed, lank man! The sudden exclamation shows the speaker's affection. The adjectives give a vivid, physical portrait.

Rhetorical question line 19

how can he sleep? The question answers itself. It links Lincoln's unrest directly to the suffering of the world.

Anaphora line 21

Too many homesteads in black terror weep "Too many" repeats from line 20. The repetition piles up the suffering.

Metaphor line 22

The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart The rulers' crimes are pictured as fire inside him. The image shows moral pain as physical pain.

Tricolon line 25

The bitterness, the folly and the pain Three nouns name what he carries. The list makes the burden heavy and complete.

Metaphor line 26

a spirit-dawn The hoped-for peace is pictured as a sunrise of the spirit. It answers the "midnight" of the title.

Euphemism line 33

That he may sleep upon his hill again Sleep stands for the peace of the grave. The last line makes his rest depend on the world's peace.

Words worth knowing

portentous

Ominous, full of grave meaning.

thing of state

A matter of public or national importance.

dreadnaughts

Usually spelled dreadnoughts: large, heavily armed battleships.

main

The open sea.

travail

Hard, painful labour.

Cornland

Farmland where grain grows. With "Alp and Sea" it stands for the plains, mountains and coasts of the world.

Context

Vachel Lindsay lived from 1879 to 1931. "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight" has been on americanpoems.com since 2004. It was the archive's Poem of the Day on August 12, 2007. Readers left 7 comments on it between 2004 and 2020.

What readers have said

• jerry reads the poem as the poet's picture of how Lincoln might feel after death, grieving that people still suffer for nothing. jerry, 2004
• Harry Hickey hears echoes of Hamlet in the idea of a great ruler returning from the grave because of the world's troubles, and in the opening line's language. Harry Hickey, 2005
• Larry Stevens traces the portrait of the shawl-wrapped Lincoln to the last chapter of Herndon's life of Lincoln. Larry Stevens, 2006
• Barbara Hixon recalls hearing the poet recite it at a school assembly, and says it gave insight into the melancholy side of Lincoln. Barbara Hixon, 2010