Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 38, No. 282.
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        Date: 2024-12-17 12:38:55+00:00
        From: William Benzon <bbenzon@mindspring.com>
        Subject: Five Sonnets on a text by Abraham Lincoln

Fellow Humanists,

Not so long ago Paul Fishwick introduced us to a GPT based on the poetry of
Frederick Turner: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-XmhqgURbv-fredtheheretic-fth

I’ve been playing around with it a bit. A couple days ago I gave it the text of
Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” and asked it for five sonnets based on that. I’ve
appended them below.

BB


The Battle-Field: A Sonnet

Upon this ground where blood and tears have lain,
A nation forged in liberty still stands.
These fields once drank the courage of brave hands,
Yet whisper now of loss, enduring pain.

No words of ours could sanctify this space;
The deeds of those who fell surpass our breath.
Their valor, richer than the soil of death,
Ensures that time cannot their work erase.

We bear the burden, those who linger here,
To finish what their sacrifice began,
To weave a union, broad and strong and clear,
Upholding freedom's light for every man.

Let not their purpose fade, nor courage wane;
That dream they died for shall not die in vain.
-----

The Battle-Field: A Sonnet

Upon this ground where blood and tears have lain,
A nation forged in liberty still stands.
These fields once drank the courage of brave hands,
Yet whisper now of loss, enduring pain.

No words of ours could sanctify this space;
The deeds of those who fell surpass our breath.
Their valor, richer than the soil of death,
Ensures that time cannot their work erase.

We bear the burden, those who linger here,
To finish what their sacrifice began,
To weave a union, broad and strong and clear,
Upholding freedom's light for every man.

Let not their purpose fade, nor courage wane;
That dream they died for shall not die in vain.
-----

The Unfinished Work

Here lies the proof of freedom’s fragile dream,
A nation’s heart laid bare in sacrifice.
The dead, whose silent deeds beyond suffice,
Have sown with blood what words can only seem.

No stone can hallow what their courage sealed,
No tongue can add to what they’ve dared and done.
The work remains; their labor is begun,
And calls us now upon this battle-field.

Shall we, the living, falter in this task,
Or turn away from what their lives bestowed?
Or shall we bear the torch, their honor’s load,
And in their shadow, shed our timid mask?

A government, by us, for us, must rise,
Lest freedom fall and perish where it lies.
-----

The Undying Cause

Beneath these skies, where solemn winds now tread,
The fields remember what the brave have sown.
Each life laid down, a seed of freedom grown,
Their sacrifice, the nation’s truest thread.

No stone, no word can match their holy fight;
The ground itself is sacred by their toil.
Each drop of blood became this hallowed soil,
Each breath they gave has turned to guiding light.

We carry forth their banner through the years,
Their dream of justice burning in our hearts.
Their courage binds what conflict rends apart,
Their hope survives in us, through doubt and fears.

Here, by their rest, we vow to see it through,
A freedom born again, enduring, true.
-----


A Pledge on Hallowed Ground

This ground is steeped in valor’s solemn grace,
Its earth a shrine where dreams were fiercely kept.
The silent stones, the grasses where they slept,
Hold echoes of a struggle time can’t erase.

We cannot consecrate what they have made,
Nor hallow more this field of sacred strife.
Their blood, their breath, their forfeited young life
Have forged a cause that never shall degrade.

So here we stand, the living, bound by oath,
To guard the freedom born of their last breath,
To honor through our lives what passed in death,
And pledge to keep their dream alive in growth.

Let liberty endure, their will our guide,
A beacon lit by those who fought and died.


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