Page 33 - SpringBoard_CloseReading_Workshop_Grade6_Flipbook

Close Reading of poetry (continued)
Abraham Lincoln
Walks at Midnight
portentous: giving a sign or warning that something is going to happen thing of state: a matter of state; something of national concern or importance
homestead: a house and the farmland it is on
prairie-lawyer: an attorney who has completed little or no formal legal training and has become a member of a state bar through apprenticeship and study; partly through its association with Lincoln, the image of a prairie-lawyer is one of a protector of the common man
dreadnaughts: (or dreadnoughts) early 20th century battleships
by Vachel Lindsay
(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.
5 Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards
He lingers where his children used to play,
Or through the market, on the well-worn stones He stalks until the dawn-stars burn away.
A bronzed, lank man! His suit of ancient black, 10 A famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl
Make him the quaint great figure that men love, The prairie-lawyer, master of us all.
He cannot sleep upon his hillside now. He is among us:—as in times before!
15 And we who toss and lie awake for long
Breathe deep, and start, to see him pass the door.
His head is bowed. He thinks on men and kings. Yea, when the sick world cries, how can he sleep? Too many peasants fight, they know not why,
20 Too many homesteads in black terror weep.
The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart.
He sees the dreadnaughts scouring every main. He carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now The bitterness, the folly and the pain.
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SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 6
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