POETRY.
"GONE UNDER."
(A rejoinder to a certain speech, that implied that a vigorous boyhood brought on premature senility.) "Where are those now that used to get
The prizes of our schoolboy days ?
Gone under !—if they're living yet."
But listen ere you stint your praise.
It's not the idler or the fool That always gets the most from school; The boy whose people have to grind To send their son to school at all, The boy who slowly trains his mind To answer to whatever call, Who counts among his careful gains The trick of always taking pains, May have no friend to point the way To wealth or fame. To pick and choose Is not for him. A meagre pay, That others scorn, he can't refuse. Hunger and nakedness and thirst Send him to tackle what comes first.
He drudged at school for other boys, Did his own work and theirs as well. They're rulers now, and make the noise; He's still got only brains to sell; But all he does is sound and strong, And goes to help the world along.
" Gone under ?" If you like ! As trees
Stand firm on roots that grip the soil, So States are formed on men like these, And Empires builded on their
" Gone under" that foundations may Hold showier structures up today.
So myriad patient corals spend Their lives, and grave is heaped on grave Below the sea, but in the end The island's there, and palm-trees wave Round the lagoon, a sacred wreath That crowns the dead who rest beneath.
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