Hear me
read
the poem as
an MP3 file.
Watch me
read
the poem as
a YouTube video.
Video and Audio Music:
Vanity Reprise
By Text Me Records/Leviathe.
Music free to use
at YouTube.
Alpha
List
Epitaphs
Name
Poems
Poems for
Washington's
Birthday
About This
Site
Poems for
Free
Copyright by
Nicholas Gordon
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Greatness is effect far
more than cause.
Each hero is the servant of his fate,
On whom is laid the sacrificial
weight
Reserved for those who would heed higher
laws.
Given peace, I would have shunned
applause,
Electing to remain a farmer, great
With long-gestating plans for my
estate,
A much-loved labor lost to much-loathed
wars.
So was I the father of a nation,
Having given over life and love,
Instrument of some far greater hand,
Not by choice but of necessity.
Glory was the means by which to
fashion
The myth that would a king's
replacement prove:
Only I would do, and that demand
Narrowed, deepened, scoured, chastened
me. Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.
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