1743-1826
Thomas Jefferson,
What do you say
Under the gravestone
Hidden away?
"I was a giver,
I was a molder,
I was a builder
With a strong shoulder."
Six feet and over,
Large-boned and ruddy,
The eyes grey-hazel
But bright with study.
The big hands clever
With pen and fiddle
And ready, ever,
For any riddle.
From buying empires
To planting 'taters,
From Declarations
To trick dumb-waiters.
"I liked the people,
The sweat and crowd of them,
Trusted them always
And spoke aloud or them.
"I liked all learning
And wished to share it
Abroad like pollen
For all who merit.
"I liked fine houses
With Greek pilasters,
And built them surely,
My touch a master's.
"I liked queer gadgets
And secret shelves,
And helping nations
To rule themselves.
"Jealous of others?
Not always candid?
But huge of vision
And open-handed.
"A wild-goose-chaser?
Now and again,
Build Monticello,
You little men!
"Design my plow, sirs,
They use it still,
Or found my college
At Charlottesville.
"And still go questing
New things and thinkers,
And keep as busy
As twenty tinkers.
"While always guarding
The people's freedom
You need more hands, sir?
I didn't need 'em.
"They call you rascal?
They called me worse.
You'd do grand things, sir,
But lack the purse?
"I got no riches.
I died a debtor.
I died free-hearted
And that was better.
"For life was freakish
But life was fervent,
And I was always
Life's willing servant.
"Life, life's too weighty?
Too long a haul, sir?
I lived past eighty.
I liked it all, sir."
