Lee

by Edgar Lee Masters

1926

The scene is the lawn around the uncompleted Washington monument in the city of Washington. It is in the early morning of April 17th 1861. The air is balmy, the skies fresh and blue through which white clouds are moving amid the glory of the vernal sunlight. Ormund and Arimanius, figures neither old nor young, neither ancient nor modern, but distinguished by something that makes them eternal types, are walking about the monument in earnest talk. They might be Americans of less familiar appearance, or old world characters, but not too alien. The spring wind blows their voices at first before their words become intelligible; and it is evident that they have been in conversation for some time. What is heard at first may be out of the midst of their dialogue, or at the end of it; but it seems to convey the substance of all that they have discussed with each other. -- Prologue.