Jack Dempsey’s Grave + 

Far out in the wilds of Oregon, + 

On a lonely mountain side, + 

Where Columbia’s mighty waters + 

Roll down to the Ocean’s tide; + 

Where the giant fir and cedar + 

Are imaged in the wave, + 

O’ergrown with ferns and lichens, + 

I found poor Dempsey’s grave. + 

I found no marble monolith, + 

No broken shaft nor stone, + 

Recording sixty victories + 

This vanquished victor won; + 

No rose, no shamrock could I find, + 

No mortal here to tell + 

Where sleeps in this forsaken spot + 

The immortal Nonpareil. + 

A winding, wooded canyon road + 

That mortals seldom tread + 

Leads up this lonely mountain + 

To this desert of the dead. + 

And the western sun was sinking + 

In Pacific’s golden wave; + 

And these solemn pines kept watching + 

Over poor Jack Dempsey’s grave. + 

That man of honor and of iron, + 

That man of heart and steel, + 

That man who far out-classed his class + 

And made mankind to feel + 

That Dempsey’s name and Dempsey’s fame + 

Should live in serried stone, + 

Is now at rest far in the West + 

In the wilds of Oregon. + 

Forgotten by ten thousand throats + 

That thundered his acclaim⁠— + 

Forgotten by his friends and foes + 

That cheered his very name; + 

Oblivion wraps his faded form, + 

But ages hence shall save + 

The memory of that Irish lad + 

That fills poor Dempsey’s grave. + 

O Fame, why sleeps thy favored son + 

In wilds, in woods, in weeds? + 

And shall he ever thus sleep on⁠— + 

Interred his valiant deeds? + 

’Tis strange New York should thus forget + 

Its “bravest of the brave,” + 

And in the wilds of Oregon + 

Unmarked, leave Dempsey’s grave. + 