Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Voices from the Past: Robert Page Lincoln


Here is one of my favorite poems from a great outdoor writer, Robert Page Lincoln. Lincoln was a diverse and accomplished angler and a top-notch outdoor writer who was deeply involved in the tackle industry, so much so that a famous spoon was named after him. It was manufactured by the Brainerd Bait Company of Brainerd, Minnesota.

IZAAK WALTON

Him did High Virtue perfectly endow,
Clean-wrought for living — Nature's gifted sage;
Uncoverer of Beauty on Time's gilded page,
Fine Priest of streams, of leaf and drooping bough;

Keeper of gladness, Faith's own solemn vow, —
Eschewing Gain and Competition's rage,
Measuring Life by Heaven's wiser gauge,
And breathing hope and blessedness enow!

Oh I have been much in delight to think,
How well his days were chosen to be spent.
And by the pools of Stafford, 'proached the brink
Of Paradise — and comfortably lent,

Him to sweet Themes of chaste divinity,
Kind songs of hope on skyward wings set free!

-- Robert Page Lincoln


-- Dr. Todd

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