John Jay Chapman

Roosevelt

[Lines read at the Harvard Club, New York, on February 9, 1919] LIFE seems belittled when a great man dies; The age is cheapened and time's furnishings Stare like the trappings of an empty stage. Ring down the curtain! We must pause, go home And let the plot of the world reshape itself To comprehensive form. Roosevelt dead! The genial giant walks the earth no more, Grasping the hands of all men, deluging Their hearts, like Pan, with bright Cyclopean fire That dizzied them at times, yet made them glad. Where dwells he? Everywhere! In cottages, And by the forge of labor and the desk Of science. The torn spelling book Is blotted with the name of Roosevelt, And like a myth he floats upon the winds Of India and Ceylon. His brotherhood Includes the fallen kings. Himself a king, He left a stamp upon his countrymen Like Charlemagne. Yes, note the life of kings! A throne's a day of judgment in itself, And shows the flaw within the emerald. For every king must seem more than he is; Ambition holds her prism before his eye, Burlesques his virtues, rides upon his car Clouded with false effulgence, till the man Loses his nature in a second self, Which is his rôle. Yet Theodore survived— Resumed his natural splendor as he sank Like Titan in the ocean. The great war Was all a fight for Paris—must she fall And be a heap of desolation ere Relief could reach her? Sad America Dreamed in the distance as a charmèd thing Till Roosevelt, like Roland, blew his horn. Alone he did it! By his personal will. Alone—till others echoed—bellowing From shore to shore across the continent, Like a sea monster to the sleeping seals Of Pribylov. Then, slowly wakening, The flock prepared for war. 'Twas just in time! One blast the less, and our preparedness Had come an hour too late. Ay, traveller, Who wanderest by the bridges of the Seine, Past palaces and churches, marts and streets, Whose names are syllables in history, 'Twas Roosevelt saved Paris. There she stands! Look where you will—the towers of Notre Dame, The quays, the columns, the Triumphal Arch— To those who know, they are his monument.