View single post by Skipdawg
 Posted: Fri Jul 4th, 2008 12:46 pm
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Skipdawg



Joined: Thu Mar 29th, 2007
Location: Washington USA
Posts: 14965
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 Here is a poem I'd like to share with you all. I am sure many have read it or at least something by this author. ;)

A Nation’s Strength

What makes a nation’s pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?

It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.

And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly...
They build a nation’s pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1904)