Poems (Piatt)/Volume 2/A President at Home
A PRESIDENT AT HOME.[1]
I passed a President's House to-day———
"A President, mamma, and what is that?"
Oh, it is a man who has to stay
Where bowing beggars hold out the hat
For something: a man who has to be
The Captain of every ship that we
Send with our darling flag to the sea:
The Colonel at home who has to command
"A President, mamma, and what is that?"
Oh, it is a man who has to stay
Where bowing beggars hold out the hat
For something: a man who has to be
The Captain of every ship that we
Send with our darling flag to the sea:
The Colonel at home who has to command
Each marching regiment in the land.
This President now has a single room,
That is low and not much lighted, I fear;
Yet the butterflies play in the sun and gloom
Of his evergreen avenue, year by year;
And the child-like violets up the hill
Climb, faintly wayward, about him still;
And the bees blow by at the wind's wide will;
And the cruel river, that drowns men so,
Looks pretty enough in the shadows below.
This President now has a single room,
That is low and not much lighted, I fear;
Yet the butterflies play in the sun and gloom
Of his evergreen avenue, year by year;
And the child-like violets up the hill
Climb, faintly wayward, about him still;
And the bees blow by at the wind's wide will;
And the cruel river, that drowns men so,
Looks pretty enough in the shadows below.
Just one little fellow (named Robin) was there,
In a red Spring vest, and he let me pass
With that charming-careless, high-bred air
Which comes of serving the great. In the grass
He sat, half-singing, with nothing to do———
No, I did not see the President too:
His door was locked (what I say is true),
And he was asleep, and has been, it appears,
Like Rip Van Winkle, asleep for years!
In a red Spring vest, and he let me pass
With that charming-careless, high-bred air
Which comes of serving the great. In the grass
He sat, half-singing, with nothing to do———
No, I did not see the President too:
His door was locked (what I say is true),
And he was asleep, and has been, it appears,
Like Rip Van Winkle, asleep for years!
- ↑ At North Bend, Ohio River—the tomb of General William Henry Harrison, ninth President of the United States of America.