LINCOLN'S VERSE

The poetic vein in Abraham Lincoln cropped out in several compositions in rhyme that have survived from his boyhood. When, after the assassination, Herndon set about to gather materials for his Life of Lincoln, he visited the old home of Thomas Lincoln in Indiana, near Gentryville, and obtained, he says, from Mrs. Josiah Crawford, a neighbor of the Lincolns, some manuscripts of "Abe's early literary efforts." The most pretentious of this "doggerel" is "Adam and Eve's Wedding Song," which Herndon says. was composed by Abe in honor of the marriage of his sister, Sarah Lincoln, to Aaron Grigsby, of Gentryville, in 1826. The "song" consists of eight stanzas, as follows:

When Adam was created

He dwelt in Eden's shade,

As Moses has recorded,

And soon a bride was made.

Ten thousand times ten thousand
Of creatures swarmed around
Before a bride was formed,

And yet no mate was found.

The Lord then was not willing
That man should be alone,
But caused a sleep upon him,
And from him took a bone.

And closed the flesh instead thereof,

And then he took the same

And of it made a woman,

And brought her to the man.

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Then Adam he rejoiced

To see his loving bride
A part of his own body,

The product of his side.

The woman was not taken
From Adam's feet we see,
So he must not abuse her,
The meaning seems to be.

The woman was not taken
From Adam's head, we know,
To show she must not rule him-
'Tis evidently so.

The woman she was taken
From under Adam's arm,
So she must be protected
From injuries and harm.

Very recently Lincoln's authorship of this "song" has been challenged. In July, 1918, through the instrumentality of Mr. Henry B. Rankin, of Springfield, Ill., the writer was put into communication with Hon. Wiley E. Jones, attorney-general of the State of Arizona, from whom he obtained the original manuscript of "The Song of Creation," written August 14, 1818, by William H. Bozarth, of Grayson county, Kentucky, for Miss Ally Grieves of the same locality. Mr. Jones has kindly loaned this original and much-faded manuscript to the writer. It is the inheritance of Mrs. Phoebe L. Jones, of Phoenix, Arizona, a granddaughter of William H. Bozarth, who has furnished in an affidavit which accompanies the manuscript of the "Song," a history of her family and the circumstances attending the writing of the song by her grandfather. A literal transcription of "The Song of Creation" is as follows:

When adam was created he dwelt in edons shad

as moses has recorded and same a bride was made

ten thousand times ten thousand Creatures swarmd

around

before a bride was formed and yet no mate was found

he had no conversation but seamed as yet alone till to his admiration he found he had lost a bone great was his Elevation when first he saw his bride great was his exaltation to see her by his side

he spake as in a rapture as from whence you came as from my left side atracted and woman is your name then adam he rejoiced to see his loving bride apart of his own body the produce of his side

this woman was not taken from adams feet we see so we must not abuse her the meaning seems to bee this woman was not taken from adams head we know to show she must not rule him its evidently so

this woman was Extracted from under adams arm so she must be protected from injury and harm this woman was extracted from near to adams heart by which we are directed that they shall never part

here is Council for the bride groom & likewise for the b[ride]

let not this sacred volum be ever laid aside

the book thats Cald the bible be shore you dont neglect in thought words and action it does you boath direct

the bride she is Commanded her husband to obey in every thing that is lawful until her dying day the bridegroom is Commanded that is to love his bride. live as becomes a christian and for his house provide

the bride she is Commanded to obey her husbands

w [ill]

in every thing thats lawful his duty to fulfil

avoiding all offences throughout the human life these are the sollom duties of every man and wife

On the back of the sheet containing this song is the following inscription, with the signature of the author and the date of composition:

The Song of Creation wrote by
Wm H Bozarth August 14th 1818
For Miss Ally Grieves
Grayson County

Kentucky 1818

William H. Bozarth

It is apparent, of course, that the greater part of the "Adam and Eve's Wedding Song," ascribed to Lincoln, duplicates almost literally a good part of Bozarth's "Song of Creation," written eight years earlier. It is evident that the Bozarth stanzas are the original of the lines ascribed to Lincoln. Lincoln's verses are assigned to the year 1826, when he would be seventeen years of age; Bozarth (1796-1825) wrote his lines in 1818, and his death occurred the year before the Lincoln verses are alleged to have been written.

The writer of this volume has not had an opportunity to examine the manuscript from which Herndon reproduced the Lincoln "Song," and is therefore limited to a comparison of Herndon's version with the original manuscript of the Bozarth verses. This comparison, in itself, leads to the conclusion that young Abe must have had access to Bozarth's lines, possibly through a Kentucky newspaper taken by some one in his Indiana neighborhood. Herndon (page 57) speaks of "the only newspaper-sent from Louisville," taken by the keeper of the store at Gentryville, one Jones, "at whose place of business gathered Abe, Dennis Hanks, Baldwin, the blacksmith, and other kindred spirits to discuss such topics as are the exclusive property of the store no longer." If Herndon's version was furnished by Abe at his sister's marriage, it seems probable that he selected for his purpose certain of the Bozarth lines and added a stanza of his own making. In this case, he improved the stanzas selected by

a few verbal changes. Herndon, as well as other of Lincoln's biographers, creates the impression that, in the neighborhood of Gentryville, young Abe was the cleverest of all in the art of writing. Herndon speaks of a boyhood composition on the "American Government," which the local Judge John Pitcher, from whom Abe borrowed books, read and declared "the world couldn't beat it;" and of another of Abe's articles on "Temperance," which was "furnished to an Ohio newspaper for publication." Herndon shows that Lincoln, as a boy, was accustomed to write rhymes, satiric and otherwise; and Arnold (page 24) quotes Dennis Hanks as saying of Abe, "He was always reading, writing, cyphering, writing poetry."

In the Century Magazine for April, 1894, John G. Nicolay contributed a valuable article on "Lincoln's Literary Experiments." He reproduced two of Lincoln's most serious attempts at verse writing, compositions written after he had become a lawyer and politician at Springfield. Lincoln sent these two poems to his "Friend Johnson," whom Mr. Nicolay identifies no further. One of the poems was included in a letter Lincoln wrote to Johnson, April 18, 1846, in which he tells the circumstances of its composition: "In the fall of 1844, thinking I might aid some to carry the State of Indiana for Mr. Clay, I went into the neighborhood in that State in which I was raised, where my mother and only sister were buried, and from which I had been absent about fifteen years.

"That part of the country is, within itself, as unpoetical as any spot of the earth; but still, seeing it and its objects and inhabitants aroused feelings in me which were certainly poetry, though whether my expression of those feelings is poetry is quite another question. When I got to writing, the change of subject divided the thing into four little divisions or cantos, the first only of which I send you now, and may send the others hereafter." The verses follow: