John Horace Burleson by Edgar Lee Masters — Read

I won the prize essay at school / Here in the village, / And published a novel before I was twenty-five.

I went to the city for themes and to enrich my art;

There married the banker's daughter, / And later became president of the bank --

Always looking forward to some leisure / To write an epic novel of the war.

Meanwhile friend of the great, and lover of letters, / And host to Matthew Arnold and to Emerson.

An after dinner speaker, writing essays / For local clubs. At last brought here --

My boyhood home, you know --

Not even a little tablet in Chicago / To keep my name alive.

How great it is to write the single line:

"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll! "