The poem became an emotional turning point in that ceremony, bringing a somber crowd to its feet.

"We cannot wipe the tears from the eyes of the people," President Mkapa told a somber crowd of 10,000 at the Nyangoma Stadium.

It was a drably somber crowd.

The Governor, several clergymen and myriad civic leaders addressed a tearful and somber crowd, many of them young children.

It was a somber crowd that filed out of the kirk, despite the brilliance and ripening warmth of the sun high overhead.

Blewett handed out his speech to the somber crowd "He was a brother, friend, and mentor who helped me over the years, and I miss you brother".

On Friday, almost 100 years later, in a downtown courtroom here packed with a somber crowd of black and white men, women and children, and with television news cameras recording every moment, Mr. Johnson was vindicated.

Almost two hundred tired, gaunt, downcast men stood holding their parachute packs in a somber and unstirring crowd outside the briefing room, their faces staring blankly in different angles of stunned dejection.

A somber crowd of 48,659 attended.

They scrutinized the somber crowds with a restless energy, an inbred contempt, as if wishing for some unexplained or unruly behavior so they could tear someone limb from limb.