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Page:Poems Odom.djvu/280

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OUR DEAD PRESIDENT.
The sound of muffled drums is heard,The dull boom of the minute-gunBreaks on the sunlit morning air;The tale is told—the deed is done.
A nation's mighty pulse is stirredWith grief and sorrow, all too deepTo find expression save in tears;In sacred silence let us weep,—
Weep for our chieftain's head laid lowBefore the vile assassin's thrust;A country's hope in fair, fresh flowerDown-trodden to the very dust.
The world looks on with bated breath,And shrinks affrighted from the blowThat spread the pall of death abroad,And draped the whole fair land with woe;

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