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  Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

    You are young, and I am older;
        You are hopeful, I am not—
    Enjoy life, ere it grow colder—
        Pluck the roses ere they rot.

    Teach your beau to heed the lay—
        That sunshine soon is lost in shade—
    That now's as good as any day—
        To take thee, Rosa, ere she fade.

 


The above poem was an inscription in the autograph album of Rosa Haggard in Winchester, Illinois in September 28, 1858. Rosa was the daughter of the proprieter of the hotel where Lincoln was staying. It can be found in:
  • Lincoln, Abraham. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume I. Roy P. Basler, Ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Ruters University Press, 1953.
  • Phillips, Louis, ed. The Random House Treasury of Light Verse New York: Random House, 1995.

    Lincoln was 16th President of the United States of America.