Уильям Нокс: Линкольннің сүйікті ақыны және өлеңдері

William Knox (17 August 1789 – 12 November 1825) was a Scottish poet. He is known for writing Abraham Lincoln's favourite poem, Mortality (O, Why Should The Spirit Of Mortal Be Proud? ), which Lincoln often recited by memory.

William Knox was born on 17 August 1789 in the small estate of Firth, in the parish of Lilliesleaf, in the county of Roxburghshire, in southern Scotland. He was the eldest child (of three sons and three daughters) of Thomas Knox, an agricultural and pastoral farmer in Roxburghshire and the neighbouring Selkirkshire, and Barbara Turnbull, the eldest daughter of Walter Turnbull, Esquire of Firth. He was educated first in the parish school of Lilliesleaf (to age 14), then in Musselburgh Grammar School. The Knox family lived in a farm (Todrig) which his mother had inherited when her first husband, also a farmer, died. From an early age William was considered to have powers of acute observation and steady attention, and a mind keen, active and susceptible of deep impressions. He also had a peculiarly retentive memory. By age 14, he was a good English scholar with a considerable knowledge of Latin. He was also passionately fond of music and liked to draw. At an early age William started writing songs and other poetical pieces, humorous and satirical, chiefly in the Scottish dialect. After his return from Musselburgh to Firth to assist his father, poetry became more than just an amusement for him. In 1812 he leased the farm of Wrae, near Langholm, Dumfriesshire, and farmed unsuccessfully mainly due to the lack of a capital needed to render the farm sufficiently productive from 1812 to 1817; then he turned to writing poems, encouraged by both Christopher North and Sir Walter Scott. Despite having farmed for only five years, he earned the approbation of the intelligent agriculturists in Dumfriesshire, who considered Knox as a man well fitted to excel as a farmer. He was greatly esteemed and highly praised by all of his neighbours: for his generosity as a man and for his worth as a friend. During his farming years, Knox never lost his interest in poetry and literature. By 1817 when he ceased farming William was deeply read in the British poets, both ancient and contemporary. In 1817 he composed the greater number of the pieces contained in his first work, The Lonely Hearth and other Poems. By that time he also had become a good literary critic, not only of poetry but also of other English literature, and had exercised his talents in different styles of composition. At about that time, he wrote unpublished poems entitled The Influence of Love over the other Passions and The Father's Cottage.

The poem “O, Why Should The Spirit Of Mortal Be Proud?” was a particular favorite of Abraham Lincoln. American painter F. B. Carpenter wrote that while he was engaged in painting his large picture at the White House, he was alone one evening with the president in his room when President Lincoln said:
"There is a poem, which has been a great favorite with me for years, which was first shown to me when a young man, by a friend, and which I afterwards saw and cut from a newspaper, and learned by heart. I would,” he continued, “give a great deal to know who wrote it, but I have never been able to ascertain.”