Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FOR SERVICE, by BERTON BRALEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FOR SERVICE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, it isn't for the money and it isn't for the fame
Last Line: You had better never join the engineers!
Subject(s): Crusades; Engineering & Engineers; Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers


Oh, it isn't for the money and it isn't for the fame
And it isn't for the plaudits or the cheers,
But for joy that's in the working and for fun that's in the game
That we've taken up the trade of Engineers.
We may camouflage ideals with some babble—mostly sham—
Of our wish to mount the money-temple's stairs,
But when it comes to cases we don't give a tinker's dam
For the millions of a dozen millionaires.

We don't pose as brave crusaders, but we certainly crusade
In an everlasting fight with mother earth,
Every bridge that we have builded, every tunnel we have made
Every line that belts the planetary girth
Is a monument of struggle for the betterment of man
And we did it, as we do it, and we will
By the urge of what's inside us, by the spirit of our clan
And it's something more than money pays the bill!

Though we like our share of treasure and the pleasure that it brings,
It is something else which drives us to our goal,
It's the triumph of our labor over elemental things
And the Vision which gives splendor to the whole;
We are members of an order that is guided on by dreams
By the voices of the prophets and the seers,
And unless you care for Service more than money-getting schemes
You had better never join the Engineers!





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