Hannah Armstrong

Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)



I wrote him a letter asking him for old times' sake
To discharge my sick boy from the army;
But maybe he couldn't read it.
Then I went to town and had James Garber,
Who wrote beautifully, write him a letter.
But maybe that was lost in the mails.
So I traveled all the way to Washington.
I was more than an hour finding the White House.
And when I found it they turned me away,
Hiding their smiles. Then I thought:
"Oh, well, he ain't the same as when I boarded him
And he and my husband worked together
And all of us called him Abe, there in Menard."
As a last attempt I turned to a guard and said:
"Please say it's old Aunt Hannah Armstrong
From Illinois, come to see him about her sick boy
In the army."
Well, just in a moment they let me in!
And when he saw me he broke in a laugh,
And dropped his business as president,
And wrote in his own hand Doug's discharge,
Talking the while of the early days,
And telling stories.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

57 sec read
126

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDDEFGHIJDKLMNBOPQRST
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 911
Words 188
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 23

Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters was an American poet, biographer, and dramatist. more…

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