I won the prize essay at school <br />Here in the village, <br />And published a novel before I was twenty-five. <br />I went to the city for themes and to enrich my art; <br />There married the banker’s daughter, <br />And later became president of the bank— <br />Always looking forward to some leisure <br />To write an epic novel of the war. <br />Meanwhile friend of the great, and lover of letters, <br />And host to Matthew Arnold and to Emerson. <br />An after dinner speaker, writing essays <br />For local clubs. At last brought here— <br />My boyhood home, you know— <br />Not even a little tablet in Chicago <br />To keep my name alive. <br />How great it is to write the single line: <br />“Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll!”<br /><br />Edgar Lee Masters<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/john-horace-burleson/
