Responsibility
Why are our ideals hid from hostile eyes
As boys in school hide toys from master’s view?
Let them be real as we believe them true—
Real as our chartered laws and liberties.
All precious rights that we possess and prize
Were ideals once, unshaped, unripe, and new,
The wild delusions of the crack– brained few,
The trifles mocked at by the worldly– wise.
Some must be first; and every coward blights
His brother’s hope, and spreading Truth arrests;
While every brave man helps the world, and lights
The flame of courage in a thousand breasts.
So let us bear our meed of vulgar scorn,
And wait the judgment of the years unborn.
