The Nameless Saints: A Poem

THE NAMELESS SAINTS.

What was his name? I do not know his name.

I only know he heard God's voice and came; Brought all he loved across the sea.

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590 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

To live and work for God —and me; Felled the ungracious oak, with horrid toil Dragged from the soil The thrice gnarled roots and stubborn rock; With plenty filled the haggard mountain side, And when his work was done, without memorial died. No blaring trumpet sounded out his fame; He lived, he died. I do not know his name.

No form of bronze and no memorial stones Show me the place where lie his moldering bones. Only a cheerful city stands, Builded by his hardened hands; Only ten thousand homes, Where every day The cheerful play Of love and hope and courage comes; These are his monuments and these alone There is no form of bronze and no memorial stone.

And I? Is there some desert or some boundless sea

Where thou, great God of angels, wilt send me? Some oak for me to rend, some sod For me to break. Some handful of thy corn to take And scatter far afield, 'Till it in turn shall yield Its hundredfold

Of graina of gold To feed the happy children of my God? Show me the desert, Father, or the sea. Is it thine enterprise? Great God, send me! And though this body lie where ocean rolls, Father, count me among all faithful souls! Edward Everett Hale.