Poems (Linn)/Real Worth

by Edith Willis Linn

REAL WORTH.

THE storied page is not the test of good.
 Fame may be sweet, but is not all of worth.
There is more virtue in the bread of life
 Than all the honey and the froth of earth.

Those men well known to time, those fadeless names,
 May not have been the honest ones or best;
May not have been the ones that warred for right
 With noblest purpose, most unselfish zest.

But favorites of fate; all hail to these!
 For greatness was their birthright most divine.
Fame's herald shall such names proclaim afar.
 They need no praise from such weak lips as mine.

But I would speak one word for those brave souls
 Whose labors have been lost or seem in vain;
Those faithful ones who have so nobly wrought,
 And only reaped a harvesting of pain;

Of disappointed hopes and burning tears.
 No homage to their names the nations pay;
Our ears will never hear them loud proclaimed;
 They wear no crown of laurel or of bay;

But are so strong and noble, tender, brave;
 So when we praise the great and say, "All hail!"
Oh! let our hearts remember those white souls
 Whose lot has been to struggle and to fail.