Time out of mind I have stood

Fronting the frost and the sun,

That the dream of the world might endure,

And the goodly will be done.

Did the hand of the builder guess,

As he laid me stone by stone,

A heart in the granite lurked,

Patient and fond as his own?

Lovers have leaned on me

Under the summer moon,

And mowers laughed in my shade

In the harvest heat at noon.

Children roving the fields

With early flowers in spring,

Old men turning to look,

When they heard a blue-bird sing,

Have seen me a thousand times

Standing here in the sun,

Yet never a moment dreamed

Whose likeness they gazed upon.

Ah, when will ye understand,

Mortals who strive and plod,—

Who rests on this old gray wall

Lays a hand on the shoulder of God!