The Bridge Builder Poem

The Bridge Builder

An old man, going a lone highway,

Came, at the evening, cold and gray,To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,

Through which was flowing a sullen tide.The old man crossed in the twilight dim;The sullen stream had no fears for him;

But he turned, when safe on the other side,And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,"You are wasting strength with building here;Your journey will end with the ending day;You never again must pass this way;You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-Why build you a bridge at the eventide?

"The builder lifted his old gray head:"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,"There followeth after me today,A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."

Poem by: Will Allen Dromgoole