We do not build our monuments in stone,
The records of our life aren’t cast in steel;
We are forgot, if when the spirit’s flown
No human hearts our finger prints reveal.
If we have lived and died and left behind
No more than gold and lands that once were ours,
No trace of having served our fellow kind
Then wasted were our talents and our powers.
But if when we have gone our impress stays
On human hearts, whate’er has been our lot,
We need no marble shafts to mark our ways,
We shall live on, nor ever be forgot.
