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