When I have heard small talk about great men <br />I climb to bed; light my two candles; then <br />Consider what was said; and put aside <br />What Such-a-one remarked and Someone-else replied. <br /> <br />They have spoken lightly of my deathless friends, <br />(Lamps for my gloom, hands guiding where I stumble,) <br />Quoting, for shallow conversational ends, <br />What Shelley shrilled, what Blake once wildly muttered .... <br /> <br />How can they use such names and be not humble? <br />I have sat silent; angry at what they uttered. <br />The dead bequeathed them life; the dead have said <br />What these can only memorize and mumble.<br /><br />Siegfried Sassoon<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/grandeur-of-ghosts/
