About Me:

I have my own ambition. It is not To mount on eagles' wings and soar away Beyond the palings of the common lot, Scorning the griefs and joys of every day; I would be human, toiling like the rest, With tender, human heart-beats in my breast. Not on cold, lonely heights, above the ken Of common mortals, would I build my fame, But in the kindly hearts of living men. There, if permitted, would I write my name; Who builds above the clouds must dwell alone- I count good-fellowship above a throne. And so beside my door I sit and sing My simple strains, now sad, now light and gay; Happy if this or that but wake one string Whose low, sweet echoes give me back the lay; And happier still if, girded by my song, Some strained and tempted soul stands firm and strong. Humanity is much the same; if I Can give my neighbor's pent-up thought a tongue, And can give voice to his unspoken cry Of bitter pain, when my own heart is wrung, Then we two meet upon a common land, And henceforth stand together, hand in hand. I send my thought its kindred thought to greet, Out to the far frontier, through crowded town. Friendship is precious, sympathy is sweet So these be mine I ask no laurel crown. Such my ambition, which I here unfold ; So it be granted, mine is wealth untold.