Classic Poem

1743 1826
Thomas Jefferson,
What do you say
Under the gravestone
Hidden away?
" I was a giver,
I was a molder,
I was a builder
With a strong shoulder. "
Six feet and over,
Large-boned and ruddy,
The eyes grey-hazel
But bright with study.
The big hands clever
With pen and fiddle
And ready, ever,
For any riddle.
From buying empires
To planting 'taters,
From Declarations
To trick dumb-waiters.
" I liked the people,
The sweat and crowd of them,
Trusted them always
And spoke aloud of them.
" I liked all learning
And wished to share it
Abroad like pollen
For all who merit.
" I liked fine houses
With Greek pilasters,
And built them surely,
My touch a master's.
" I liked queer gadgets
And secret shelves,
And helping nations
To rule themselves.
" Jealous of others?
Not always candid?
But huge of vision
And open-handed.
" A wild-goose-chaser?
Now and again,
Build Monticello,
You little men!
" Design my plow, sirs,
They use it still,
Or found my college
At Charlottesville.
" And still go questing
New things and thinkers,
And keep as busy
As twenty tinkers.
" While always guarding
The people's freedom —
You need more hands, sir?
I didn't need 'em.
" They call you rascal?
They called me worse.
You'd do grand things, sir,
But lack the purse?
" I got no riches.
I died a debtor.
I died free-hearted
And that was better.
" For life was freakish
But life was fervent,
And I was always
Life's willing servant.
" Life, life's too weighty?
Too long a haul, sir?
I lived past eighty.
I liked it all, sir. "