Classic Poem

I

" Fellers, I have done my best! "
So he said, and went to rest
Like a child that, tired of play,
At the closing of the day,
Lays him on his mother's breast.

II

" Fellers, I have done my best! "
Hands where Death's cold lips were pressed
Folded were, as if in prayer,
In the after-silence there —
Folded gently o'er his breast.

III

All, in those last words expressed! —
All of pain, of grief unguessed!
Who than this can better say
At the closing of life's day —
" Fellers, I have done my best! "