A DEAD CARPENTER.
Joaquin Miller
his builder, this brother, now resting for ever? - What shall be said of this soldier who bled
- Through thirty-three years of silent endeavor ?
- Why, name him thy hero! Yea, write his name down
- As something far nobler, as braver by far
- Than purple-robed Caesar of battle-torn town
- When bringing home glittering trophies of war.
- Oh, dark somber pines of my starlit Sierras,
- Be silent of song, for the master is mute!
- The Carpenter, master, is dead and lo! there is
- Silence of song upon nature's draped lute!
- Brother! Oh, manly dead brother of mine!
- My brother by toil mid the toiling and lowly,
- My brother by sign of this hard hand, by sign
- Of toil, and hard toil, that the Christ has made holy:
- Yea, brother of all the brave millions that toil;
- Brave brother in patience and silent endeavor,
- Rest on, as the harvester rich from his soil,
- Rest you, and rest you for ever and ever.