William Dudley Foulke

William Dudley Foulke Poems

William Dudley Foulke Biography

William Dudley Foulke (1848 – 1935) was an American literary critic, journalist, poet and reformer. He was born in New York City and graduated Columbia Law School in 1871. He practiced law in New York until 1876, when he moved to Richmond, Indiana, and married Mary Taylor Reeves . Foulke became involved in local politics and was elected to the Indiana State Senate from 1882 to 1886. As a senator, he introduced bills to reform the state’s civil service system . In addition, he investigated abuses against inmates and employees at the state hospital for the insane . He served on the Platform Committee of the Progressive Party[disambiguation needed]. In 1889 he was asked by the National Civil Service Reform League to investigate the U.S. Federal civil service. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Foulke a Commissioner in the Civil Service Commission in 1901 . He was also one of the early presidents of the American Woman Suffrage Association, the first president of the Proportional Representation League, and (for five years) president of the National Municipal League . As a writer, Foulke wrote on a number of diverse subjects. In 1898, he published a biography of Oliver Hazard Perry Morton. Later, he translated the medieval History of The Lombards by Paul the Deacon. Other works include Biographical Introduction to Some Love Poems of Petrarch (1916). Some of his poems include Honor to France. Foulke wrote two memoirs: Fighting the Spoilsmen (1919), where he recounted his career in fighting for civil service reform. There followed a more general reminiscences, A Hoosier Autobiography (1922).)

The Best Poem Of William Dudley Foulke

Honor To France!

IN peace we held thy worth in scant esteem;
Thy sons were dissolute, thy daughters frail;
How light and fair and fickle didst thou seem
In time of need, alas, how sure to fail!
But when war came, a war that was not thine
And the flame seared thee, then thy heart we knew.
In that dark tumult how thy soul did shine
Loyal and steadfast, pure and brave and true.
Nay, thou art honored even by the foe,
In martyrdom transformed and glorified!
And we who scorned (how little did we know!)
Stripped of the tattered mantle of our pride,
Let us in self-abasement bend the knee
And pray for God s grace to become like thee.

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