Page:The Five Nations.djvu/81

Rh Mill, school, battalion, counter, trench,

Rail, senate, sheepfold, throne—

Creation's cry goes up on high

From age to cheated age:

"Send us the men who do the work

For which they draw the wage."

Words cannot help nor wit achieve,

Nor e'en the all-gifted fool,

Too weak to enter, bide, or leave

The lists he cannot rule.

Beneath the sun we count on none

Our evil to assuage,

Except the men that do the work

For which they draw the wage.

When through the Gates of Stress and Strain

Comes forth the vast Event—

The simple, sheer, sufficing, sane

Result of labour spent—

They that have wrought the end unthought

Be neither saint nor sage,

But men who merely did the work

For which they drew the wage