Abraham Lincoln

“Often Reading Aloud”

Posted on April 21, 2016 Updated on May 16, 2018

    Before he met Kelso, Shakspere and Burns had meant little to Lincoln; they had been merely names, and vague names at that. But now as he sat listening to Jack Kelso reading “Hamlet” and reciting “Macbeth,” Lincoln realized for the first time what symphonies could be played with the English language. What a thing of infinite beauty it could be! What a whirlwind of sense and emotion!

By Dale Carnegie，“Lincoln, the Unknown” ，Carnegie-029-12

    Already he possessed a vivid sensibility for the beauty of the English language. Often reading aloud, he was attracted to the sound of language along with its meaning-its music and rhythms. He found this in poetry, and to the end of his life would recite poems, often lengthy passages, from memory. He seemed especially drawn to poetry that spoke of our doomed mortality and the transience of earthly achievements. For clearly Lincoln, this acolyte of pure reason and remorseless logic, was also a romantic. 

Doris Kearns Goodwin，“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” Goodwin-046-30-27

    Though he acquired only a handful of volumes, they were seminal works of the English language. Reading the Bible and Shakespeare over and over implanted rhythms and poetry that would come to fruition in those works of his maturity that made Abraham Lincoln our only poet-president. 

Doris Kearns Goodwin，“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” Goodwin-046-30-25