Lines Written for a School Declamation

(to be spoken by Ephraim H. Farrar, aged seven, New Ipswich, New Hampshire.)

YOU'D scarce expect one of my age

To speak in public on the stage,

And if I chance to fall below

Demosthenes or Cicero,

Don't view me with a critic's eye,

But pass my imperfections by.

Large streams from little fountains flow,

Tall oaks from little acorns grow;

And though now I am small and young,

Of judgment weak and feeble tongue,

Yet all great, learned men, like me

Once learned to read their ABC.

But why may not Columbia's soil

Rear men as great as Britain's Isle,

Exceed what Greece and Rome have done

Or any land beneath the sun?

Mayn't Massachusetts boast as great

As any other sister state?

Or where's the town, go far or near,

That does not find a rival here?

Or where's the boy but three feet high

Who's made improvement more than I?

These thoughts inspire my youthful mind

To be the greatest of mankind:

Great, not like Cæsar, stained with blood,

But only great as I am good.

David Everett