Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BUILDER, by ISABELLE LOAR



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BUILDER, by                    
First Line: To build with stone: to fashion here
Last Line: A splendid, shining tower!
Subject(s): Teaching & Teachers; Western Illinois University; Educators; Professors


(To Dr. Walter Morgan, of Western
Illinois State Teachers' College, Macomb,
Illinois)

To build with stone: to fashion here
A home for love -- and there
A sanctuary for a soul
Who, grateful, stops in prayer --
Is noble artistry indeed
For him whose work may be
Unknown, unclaimed -- but still a kind
Of immortality.

To build with words -- to sense their strength,
Select and match the grain
Of each hand-fretted phrase -- is joy
Those artisans attain
Whose tools are wit, and work, and love
For that which they have wrought:
A slender edifice of words --
Cathedral for a thought!

To build with men! Such craftsmanship
Outweights all other skills,
For such a one builds destiny:
From him, if so he wills,
Come bulwarks of enduring truth,
And strength, and unsensed power
For those from whom he slowly builds
A splendid, shining tower!





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