Jonas Keene thought his lot a hard one <br />Because his children were all failures. <br />But I know of a fate more trying than that: <br />It is to be a failure while your children are successes. <br />For I raised a brood of eagles <br />Who flew away at last, leaving me <br />A crow on the abandoned bough. <br />Then, with the ambition to prefix Honorable to my name, <br />And thus to win my children's admiration, <br />I ran for County Superintendent of Schools, <br />Spending my accumulations to win -- and lost. <br />That fall my daughter received first prize in Paris <br />For her picture, entitled, "The Old Mill" -- <br />(It was of the water mill before Henry Wilkin put in steam.) <br />The feeling that I was not worthy of her finished me.<br /><br />Edgar Lee Masters<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/albert-schirding/
