Classic Poem

" For I was cradled by a poor man's hearth,
Where daily labor earned our daily bread;
Hunger and want were sponsors at my birth,
Cold nightly made my bed.

" I saw the rich man's children at their play,
And I was stung by taunting word, and frown,
And mocking laughter, as they turned away
From my poor, faded gown.

" My mother tried to soothe me when I wept,
For in my childish heart one thought was sore;
It haunted me in dreamland, when I slept,
And whispered, " You are poor."

" She said: " My daughter, I foresee a day,
And then the tender mother wept and smiled,
" When these same mockers will be proud to say
They knew you as a child."

" Dear soul, she did not see the tidal wave
That brought to me a priceless argosy;
The years that nursed the blossoms on her grave,
Fulfilled her prophecy.

" So I inherited the right to speak
Of want and suffering, ignorance and wrong;
To help the helpless, to uphold the weak,
By my free gift of song.

" And whenso'er my busy fancy caught
A vision of the coming better-day,
I tried to paint it, wondering as I wrought,
If he would read my lay.

" He gave my thought too often shape and tone,
And much I questioned wherefore this should be;
For, like a splendid statue wrought in stone,
He was no more to me.

" I sowed my seeds beneath God's gracious sky,
Along the world's highway and busy mart,
Trusting their bloom would gladden some sad eye,
Refresh some weary heart.

" But, in the pauses of my work and brain,
When love and happiness seemed far and dim,
And all my earnest labor futile, vain,
My thoughts went out to him.