Classic Poem

Think not that the world's commanders
Have won the heights alone;
We measure their matchless glory
In deeds not all their own;
Though Phidias planned and ordered
The Parthenon sublime,
Ten thousand helots fashioned
That perfect dream of time.

Three hundred forgotten heroes
Died in the fatal pass
Beside their immortal leader,
The brave Leonidas;
And true as the great Columbus,
Whose glory ever grows,
Was many a pilgrim father
Whose story no man knows.

A myriad toilers founded
The stately wall and tower
Of each immortal city
That rose to fame and power;
And real renown fails never
To honour with its own
The work of faithful comrades,
Disclaiming to stand alone.

Then hail to the deathless army,
The hero toilers all
Who dared the primeval forest
And built the city wall,
Who fell in the battle of labour,
Whose graves no quest can find;
These, these are the pride of the ages,
The helpers of mankind.