This chapter attempts to give a more complete picture of Lincoln than the one presented in Chapter 7 by describing other salient features of his character and personality. Some of these characteristics were morally virtuous, and some enhanced or diminished other virtues that he possessed. This chapter shows that he was immature and had many rough edges as a young man, but it also reveals his capacity for growth and self-improvement.

When he was nine years old, he suffered greatly from the death of his mother soon after his great-aunt and great-uncle Betsy and Thomas Sparrow died. The Sparrows were a child- less couple who raised his mother and were his neighbors and surrogate grandparents. He also grieved the death of his sister Sarah when he was eighteen and the death of his first (and perhaps greatest) love, Anne Rutledge, when he was twenty-six. Later, he was heartbroken by the deaths of his sons Edward and Willie. Willie's death in the White House at the age of eleven from a lingering illness was particularly hard on him (see Chapter 7.IV).

His preoccupation with human mortality was reflected in his taste in poetry. He loved poetry, and his favorite poem was said to be William Knox's “Mortality.” Here is part of that poem:

'Tis the wink of an eye – 'tis the draught of a breath–

Lincoln also greatly loved Poe's poem “The Raven,” which describes a lover's sorrow over the death of his “lost Lenore.”