Page:Backblock Ballads and Later Verses (C.J. Dennis, 1918).djvu/130

    For it's Work—Toil—Graft
        It's accomplishment that matters in the end;
    And the act of recognition.
    Even by a politician,
        Has not ever yet been known to make or mend.
    And the man who holds a lamp-post up without much fret or fuss,
    He may "recognize a principle" and feel quite virtuous.

We have read about the lives, in ancient history,
    Of the Doers back in every age and clime;
And their method of reforming
Was reflecting and performing,
    More especially the latter, every time.
But the man who sat and recognized the principles,
    And calmly left accomplishment to Fate.
May have won a reputation,
As a saviour of the nation,
    But his name has been suppressed, at any rate.

This has clearly been the rule since far antiquity:
    Before a thing is done a man must act;
And all progress lay in knowing
What to do, and straightway going
    And just working till reform became a fact.