SMALL is my secret—let it pass— Small in your life the share I had, Who sat beside you in the class, Awed by the bright superior lad: Whom yet with hot and eager face I prompted when he missed his place. For you the call came swift and soon:— But sometimes in your holidays You met me trudging home at noon To dinner through the dusty ways, And recognized, and with a nod Passed on, but never guessed—thank God! Truly our ways were separate. I bent myself to hoe and drill, Yea, with an honest man to mate, Fulfilling God Almighty's will; And bore him children. But my prayers Were yours—and, only after, theirs. While you—still loftier, more remote, You sprang from stair to stair of fame, And you've a riband on your coat, And you've a title to your name. But have you yet a star to shine Above your bed, as I o'er mine? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON STURMINSTER FOOT-BRIDGE by THOMAS HARDY EPIGRAM: PERJURY by ROBERT NUGENT PSALM OF THOSE WHO GO FORTH BEFORE DAYLIGHT by CARL SANDBURG BEAUTIFUL SNOW by JOHN WHITAKER WATSON FAREWELL TO CYNTHIA by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS DAWN AT LEXINGTON by KATHARINE LEE BATES A DIALOGUE (TO BE SUNG TO THE VIOL, BY A BASE, AND A TREBLE) by JOSEPH BEAUMONT |