"Womans Love"
By Robert Abraham Lincoln "Lynn" Davis, writing as "Bone Head"
This poem survives on a very old, filmy sheet of paper that Robert Abraham Lincoln "Lynn" Davis enclosed in a letter to his daughter, Alice Josephine "Jo" Davis Jackson — Shannon's grandmother. Transcribed here exactly as it reads on the paper, spelling and all. A note in Robert's own hand, quoted in full below, explains its history: he wrote it years before sending Jo this copy, for a widow he was courting at the time — and the widow didn't believe he'd written it himself, accused him of copying it from a book, and the two fell out over it. The poem itself names her: "Cora Dear." Cora Martin is the woman Robert went on to marry, on 8 July 1931 in Neosho, Missouri — and, per his own 1943 death certificate, the woman he was still married to when he died.
WOMANS LOVE.
Womans Love, a rare Perfume.
Fragrant as the Roses Bloom.
Greatest earthly Bliss.
When I feel your lips on mine.
Feel your arms my neck entwine.
See the love in your Eyes shine.
Heaven in a Kiss.
Love can not be bought or sold.
Love is something more than Gold.
Warm as Sunshine never cold.
Your the only one.
Cora Dear my love is pure.
And I know twill still endure.
Een the Clouds sometimes obscure.
Till our Day is Done.
Even then it well may be.
Having crossed Deaths narrow Sea.
Reached that Land so bright and free.
Home once again.
Love will be more bright and fair.
No more worry no more care.
Banished from that Heavenly Air
Sorrow and Pain.
Bone Head.
The Note at the Bottom
Robert added this note beneath the poem, addressed to Jo:
Written many years ago. I'm off widows now. I wrote this when I was in love with a widow. Signed my own name instead of my pen name as above. She wouldn't believe I was the author. Claimed I had copied it from some book of poems. She called me a cheat, and we fell out, and that's what a fellow gets for writing fool poems. Let me know what you think of it. Dad
"My pen name as above" is "Bone Head" — the signature Robert used on the copy sent to Jo, and apparently his usual practice for poems like this one. His note says that for the widow herself, he broke from that habit and signed his own name instead, which is what she refused to believe. Whatever the falling-out, it evidently didn't last: the widow the poem names, Cora, is the same Cora Martin Robert married a few years on, and — per his death certificate — the marriage held for the rest of his life.