The Statues in the Block and Other Poems/The Fame of the City
THE FAME OF THE CITY.
A GREAT rich city of power and pride,
With streets full of traders, and ships on the tide;
With rich men and workmen and judges and preachers,
The shops full of skill and the schools full of teachers.
The people were proud of their opulent town:
The rich men spent millions to bring it renown;
The strong men built and the tradesmen planned;
The shipmen sailed to every land;
The lawyers argued, the schoolmen taught,
And a poor shy Poet his verses brought,
And cast them into the splendid store.
The tradesmen stared at his useless craft;
The rich men sneered and the strong men laughed;
The preachers said it was worthless quite;
The schoolmen claimed it was theirs to write;
But the songs were spared, though they added nought
To the profit and praise the people sought,
That was wafted at last from distant climes;
And the townsmen said: "To remotest times
We shall send our name and our greatness down!"
The boast came true; but the famous town
Had a lesson to learn when all was told:
The nations that honored cared nought for its gold,
Its skill they exceeded an hundred-fold;
It had only been one of a thousand more,
Had the songs of the Poet been lost to its store.
Then the rich men and tradesmen and schoolmen said
They had never derided, but praised instead;
And they boast of the Poet their town has bred.