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To a Child Reading
- YES, read the pages of the old‐world story,
- Of kings of noble deed and noble thought
- Of heroes whose resplendent crown of glory
- Bound their wide brows, unsought.
- But be not sad because their work is ended,
- And they have rest which life so long denied:
- They still live in the world which they befriended,
- For which they lived and died.
- Great deeds can never die : all through the ages
- Their fruits increasing ever grow and spread,
- And many a deed unnamed in written pages
- Lived once—and is not dead.
- And, God be praised, man’s work is not completed,
- There still is work on earth for men to do;
- Not yet, not yet are all the false defeated,
- Nor yet crowned all the true.
- Still the world needs brave deeds and true hearts many,
- Not yet are all the noble battles won!
- We too, we too may do deeds great as any
- That ever yet were done.
