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 teachers 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 school-men said it was theirs to write,
But the songs were spared, tho they added naught
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 naught for its gold;
Its skill they exceeded a hundredfold;
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 school-men said
They had never derided, but praised instead;
And they boast of the poet their town had bred.
—John Boyle O'Reilly.