Your dream and my dream is not that we shall rest, <br />But that our children after us shall know life at its best; <br />For all we care about ourselves—a crust of bread or two, <br />A place to sleep and clothes to wear is all that we'd pursue. <br />We'd tramp the world on sunny days, both light of heart and mind, <br />And give no thought to days to come or days we leave behind. <br /> <br />Your dream and my dream is not that we shall play, <br />But that our children after us shall tread a merry way. <br />We brave the toil of life for them, for them we clamber high, <br />And if 'twould spare them hurt and pain, for them we'd gladly die. <br />If we had but ourselves to serve, we'd quit the ways of pride <br />And with the simplest joys of earth we'd all be satisfied. <br /> <br />The best for them is what we dream. Our little girls and boys <br />Must know the finest life can give of comforts and of joys. <br />They must be shielded well from woe and kept secure from care, <br />And if we could, upon our backs, their burdens we would bear. <br />And so once more we rise to-day to face the battle zone <br />That those who follow us may know the Flag that we have known. <br /> <br />Your dream and my dream is not that we shall live; <br />The greatest joys we hope to claim are those that we shall give. <br />We face the heat and strife of life, its battle and its toil <br />That those who follow us may know the best of freedom's soil. <br />And if we knew that by our death we'd keep that flag on high, <br />For your boy and my boy, how gladly we would die.<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/for-your-boy-and-mine/
