The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar/Not They Who Soar
For other versions of this work, see Not They Who Soar.
Not they who soar, but they who plod
Their rugged way, unhelped, to God
Are heroes; they who higher fare,
And, flying, fan the upper air,
Miss all the toil that hugs the sod.
'Tis they whose backs have felt the rod,
Whose feet have pressed the path unshod,
May smile upon defeated care,
Not they who soar.
High up there are no thorns to prod,
Nor boulders lurking 'neath the clod
To turn the keenness of the share,
For flight is ever free and rare;
But heroes they the soil who've trod,
Not they who soar!
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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