• About
• The Exhibit
  • Introduction
  • John Hay at Brown
  • Back in Illinois
  • Mr. Hay Goes to Washington
  • Hay and Nicolay in the White House
  • Ellsworth
  • Poetry
  • Tragedy Strikes
  • Early Lincoln Biographies
  • Writing Abraham Lincoln: A History
  • Reception and Legacy
• Lincoln Home

Poetry

Lincoln and Nicolay shared Hay’s admiration for poetry, which became a topic of mutual enjoyment in the White House. Although neither Lincoln nor Nicolay approached the writing of it with Hay’s seriousness of purpose, all three relied on poetry for the expression of sorrow, loyalty, devotion and amusement.

Hay wrote constantly, sending his work to the newspapers for publication, and compiling a scrapbook of his published efforts. Nicolay had only one poem published, in a volume devoted to the Union cause during the Civil War, of which Hay kept a copy with him in the Executive Mansion.

As for Lincoln, after the Union victory at Gettysburg, Lincoln penned the bit of doggerel shown below, about Lee’s failed effort to take Philadelphia. Just for fun, Hay submitted this to the newspapers, likely including Greeley’s New York Tribune, one of which printed it with an introduction that presented the poem as if written by General Lee himself.

Click on the objects below for additional views or pages, when available.