The death of President Kennedy introduced military tradition and state ceremonies to a new generation of Americans, and Robert Hazel, novelist and poet, composed a poem entitled “Riderless Horse” that crystallized the haunting images surrounding the funeral for the late president:
From Andrews Field you ride into the Capital.
A guard of honor escorts your sudden corpse
down an aluminum ladder.
Your widow stalks your body through an avenue
of bare sycamores, and one answering bell,
leading heads of state to altar and precipice.
On the birthday of your son, your widow
walks bars of a dirge on the pavement
towards fountain and abyss.
Among swords of sunlight drawn by the spokes
of the caisson
and the white manes of horses, she walks
into noon and midnight.
Above the muffled drums,
the high voice of a young soldier
tells the white horses how slow to go
before your widow and children, walking
behind the flag-anchored coffin—
And one riderless black horse dancing!
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