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The Task

  • Author: Bangs, John Kendrick
  • Editor: B-7413
  • Newspaper: The Umpire volume 5
  • Page Number:
  • Date: 4 19 1916
  • Tags:
  • poetry

THE TASK By John Kendrick Bangs The deed that I would do Involves no valor of the sword, That in one moment mad of rue Should earn for me some rich reward, And cause posterity to rear, Where an admiring world might see, To pierce the upper heavens clear, A bronze or marble shaft to me; But in some corner of some squalid way Where misery shall lurk, to fight To bring the sunshine of a joyous day To dawn on souls oppressed by might; To put unhappiness to flight, And start Some hopeless heart Upon the road to hope; or where distress Hath dwelt, by acts of tenderness And words of courage, helpfulness, and cheer, Drive out some mortal's fear, And set him on his way to light.