Guiding Questions for “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight”
1. Who was Abraham Lincoln and when did he live? (16th president during the
Civil War-died in 1865)
2. Why would anyone be walking during the early morning hours? (Stress, anxiety)
3. What do you know about “Springfield, Illinois”? (Lincoln’s home town)
4. Identify the vocabulary words that signal sadness and pain in Stanza 1.
(mourning, will not rest, pacing up and down)
5. In Stanza 2, how do you know that Lincoln is thinking about the past?
(homestead, where his children used to play, stalks)
6. In Stanza 3, how do you know that the poet is describing Lincoln? (“lank man,
suit of ancient black, top hat, shawl, great figure that men love, prairie-lawyer”)
7. How is the metaphor, “He cannot sleep upon his hillside now” used to show
constant worrying? (Refers to his grave and not being able to find eternal rest)
8. What words in Stanza 5 indicate that Lincoln is worried and thinking of others
around the world? What image is described? (His head is bowed…”He thinks
on men and kings”…”too many peasants fight…too many homesteads in black
terror weep.”)
9. What does the line, “The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart” mean? Give
examples from this stanza to support your idea(s). (“dreadnaughts scouring”,
“bitterness, folly, pain”) What is a “dreadnaught”? Break the word in to two
parts. What do the parts mean? Dread=fear/naught=no; those who have no
fear. From: wornetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn: a battleship that has big
guns all of the same caliber.
10. What do you think the words “Cornland”, “Alp” and “Sea” refer to in Stanza 7?
(Geography in Europe)
11. How does the last stanza demonstrate that Lincoln feels that he will never rest?
(“breaks his heart…yet in vain…who will bring white peace…?)
12. How do the colors presented in the poem affect the mood/tone of the piece?
(midnight is dark, “shadowed yards”, “dawn-stars burn away”, “suit of ancient
black”…the darkness shows the sadness and hopelessness)
13. Do you think that humans will learn to live in peace in your lifetime? Is there
peace now? Discuss.