What are you doing for girl and boy To make their future a thing of joy? What is your dream, your hope, your plan, For waking woman and coming man? -- A wealth of money, a life of play, To give them pleasure from day to day? Enough that neither may need to toil, Nor feel the touch of the common soil? Or is your dream of a greater wealth, The soul's well-being, the body's health? -- Not hands too dainty nor heart too proud To lift and labor amid the crowd? Oh, some inherit from lowly sire Simple pleasures and plain attire, Hours of labor their bread to bring -- And yet is that such a dreadful thing? Leave them wealth in a golden store, If wealth you have, but leave them more: The well-trained heart and the well-trained hand -- These are better than gold or land. This is the richest legacy To leave the children for years to be: The wealth that all of your wealth survives -- Busy, useful, and happy lives. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOMESDAY BOOK: THE GOVERNOR by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: JOSEPH DIXON by EDGAR LEE MASTERS TWO SONNETS: 1 by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON HYBRIDS OF WAR: A MORALITY POEM: 4. THE MORAL by KAREN SWENSON NO EXEMPTION FOR TOURISTS by KAREN SWENSON |