Poems (Radford)/The Unknown Poets
The Unknown Poets
In the light of a summer sky, In the warmth of a noon-day sun,With the roses in fullest bloom, With the gold of the hours to run;With the earth breathing deep for joy Of the riches that deck her breast,With her promises new and sweet, They pass unknown to their rest.
In the busy and carer town, In the desolate crowded street,In a passionate great despair For the faces they do not meet; With the world passing heedless by In its pleasure and pride and strife,While its magical pulses beat They silently slip from life.
For the need of a kindly voice To bid theirs arise clear and strong,To tell them the world has need, Ever need of a poet's song;For the sound of a healing word In their hurts on the stony way,For the want of their daily bread They pass, as the chosen may.
With tears in their tired hearts, Bitter tears which they dare not weepIn the sorrow that gave them birth, In the watches they had to keep; In a love which they spent for nought, In a longing they might not quell,In a life that they failed to live,— And passing, for them, is well.
In the flood of a triumph song, From the burden of words set free,In the beautiful last release Of a striving life melody;—For the sake of a radiant height They climbed ere the years were spent,—For the joy of a moment there, They die, and are well content.