In Memoriam" (1866)
quartette on the death of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States
Words by Mrs. E.J. Bugbee
Music by Hiram T. Merrill.

Chicago: Root & Cady

1.
There's a burden of grief on the breezes of spring,
A song of regret from the bird on its wing;
A pall on the sunshine and over the flow'rs,
And a shadow of graves on these spirits of ours;
For a star hath gone out from the night of our sky,
On whose brightness we gazed as the war- cloud rolled by;
So tranquil and steady and clear were its beams,
They fell like a vision of peace on our dreams.

2.
A heart that we knew had been true to our weal,
A hand that was steadily guiding the wheel;
A name never tarnished by falsehood or wrong,
But dwelt in our hearts like a soul-stirring song;
Ah! that pure, noble spirit has gone to its rest,
And the true hand lies nerveless and cold on the breast;
His name and his mem'ry THESE never will die,
But brighter they'll grow as the ages pass by.

3.
Away on the mountain, our Leader must die,
The fair land of promise spread out to his eye;
His work is accomplished and what he has done
Will stand as a monument under the sun;
His name reaching down thro' the ages of time,
Will still thro' the years of eternity shine,
Like a star sailing on thro' the depths of the blue
On whose brightness we gaze ev'ry evening anew.

4.
The songs of the ransomed enraptured his ear,
He heeds not the dirges that roll for him here;
In the calm of his spirit, so strange and sublime,
He's lifted far over the discord of time;
Then bear him home gently, great son of the West
Mid her fair blooming prairies lay Lincoln to rest;
The nation who loved him she takes to her trust
And tenderly garners the consecrate dust.
[Source: scsm0114@LoC/AWS]