Willie’s Question + 

Is it wrong, the wish to be great, + 

For I do wish it so? + 

I have asked already my sister Kate; + 

She says she does not know. + 

Yestereve at the gate I stood + 

Watching the sun in the west; + 

When I saw him look so grand and good + 

It swelled up in my breast. + 

Next from the rising moon + 

It stole like a silver dart; + 

In the night when the wind began his tune + 

It woke with a sudden start. + 

This morning a trumpet blast + 

Made all the cottage quake; + 

It came so sudden and shook so fast + 

It blew me wide awake. + 

It told me I must make haste, + 

And some great glory win, + 

For every day was running to waste, + 

And at once I must begin. + 

I want to be great and strong, + 

I want to begin to-day; + 

But if you think it very wrong + 

I will send the wish away. + 

Wrong to wish to be great? + 

No, Willie; it is not wrong: + 

The child who stands at the high closed gate + 

Must wish to be tall and strong! + 

If you did not wish to grow + 

I should be a sorry man; + 

I should think my boy was dull and slow, + 

Nor worthy of his clan. + 

You are bound to be great, my boy: + 

Wish, and get up, and do. + 

Were you content to be little, my joy + 

Would be little enough in you. + 

Papa, papa! I’m so glad + 

That what I wish is right! + 

I will not lose a chance to be had; + 

I’ll begin this very night. + 

I will work so hard at school! + 

I will waste no time in play; + 

At my fingers’ ends I’ll have every rule, + 

For knowledge is power, they say. + 

I would be a king and reign, + 

But I can’t be that, and so + 

Field-marshal I’ll be, I think, and gain + 

Sharp battles and sieges slow. + 

I shall gallop and shout and call, + 

Waving my shining sword: + 

Artillery, cavalry, infantry, all + 

Hear and obey my word. + 

Or admiral I will be, + 

Wherever the salt wave runs, + 

Sailing, fighting over the sea, + 

With flashing and roaring guns. + 

I will make myself hardy and strong; + 

I will never, never give in. + 

I am so glad it is not wrong! + 

At once I will begin. + 

Fighting and shining along, + 

All for the show of the thing! + 

Any puppet will mimic the grand and strong + 

If you pull the proper string! + 

But indeed I want to be great, + 

I should despise mere show; + 

The thing I want is the glory-state⁠— + 

Above the rest, you know! + 

The harder you run that race, + 

The farther you tread that track, + 

The greatness you fancy before your face + 

Is the farther behind your back. + 

To be up in the heavens afar, + 

Miles above all the rest, + 

Would make a star not the greatest star, + 

Only the dreariest. + 

That book on the highest shelf + 

Is not the greatest book; + 

If you would be great, it must be in yourself, + 

Neither by place nor look. + 

The Highest is not high + 

By being higher than others; + 

To greatness you come not a step more nigh + 

By getting above your brothers. + 

I meant the boys at school, + 

I did not mean my brother. + 

Somebody first, is there the rule⁠— + 

It must be me or another. + 

Oh, Willie, it’s all the same! + 

They are your brothers all; + 

For when you say, “Hallowed be thy name!” + 

Whose Father is it you call? + 

Could you pray for such rule to him? + 

Do you think that he would hear? + 

Must he favour one in a greedy whim + 

Where all are his children dear? + 

It is right to get up and do, + 

But why outstrip the rest? + 

Why should one of the many be one of the few? + 

Why should you think to be best? + 

Then how am I to be great? + 

I know no other way; + 

It would be folly to sit and wait, + 

I must up and do, you say! + 

I do not want you to wait, + 

For few before they die + 

Have got so far as begin to be great, + 

The lesson is so high. + 

I will tell you the only plan + 

To climb and not to fall: + 

He who would rise and be greater than + 

He is, must be servant of all. + 

Turn it each way in your mind, + 

Try every other plan, + 

You may think yourself great, but at length you’ll find + 

You are not even a man. + 

Climb to the top of the trees, + 

Climb to the top of the hill, + 

Get up on the crown of the sky if you please, + 

You’ll be a small creature still. + 

Be admiral, poet, or king, + 

Let praises fill both your ears, + 

Your soul will be but a windmill thing + 

Blown round by its hopes and fears. + 

Then put me in the way, + 

For you, papa, are a man: + 

What thing shall I do this very day?⁠— + 

Only be sure I can. + 

I want to know⁠—I am willing, + 

Let me at least have a chance! + 

Shall I give the monkey-boy my shilling?⁠— + 

I want to serve at once. + 

Give all your shillings you might + 

And hurt your brothers the more; + 

He only can serve his fellows aright + 

Who goes in at the little door. + 

We must do the thing we must + 

Before the thing we may; + 

We are unfit for any trust + 

Till we can and do obey. + 

I will try more and more; + 

I have nothing now to ask; + 

Obedience I know is the little door: + 

Now set me some hard task. + 

No, Willie; the father of all, + 

Teacher and master high, + 

Has set your task beyond recall, + 

Nothing can set it by. + 

What is it, father dear, + 

That he would have me do? + 

I’d ask himself, but he’s not near, + 

And so I must ask you! + 

Me ’tis no use to ask, + 

I too am one of his boys! + 

But he tells each boy his own plain task; + 

Listen, and hear his voice. + 

Father, I’m listening so + 

To hear him if I may! + 

His voice must either be very low, + 

Or very far away! + 

It is neither hard to hear, + 

Nor hard to understand; + 

It is very low, but very near, + 

A still, small, strong command. + 

I do not hear it at all; + 

I am only hearing you! + 

Think: is there nothing, great or small, + 

You ought to go and do? + 

Let me think:⁠—I ought to feed + 

My rabbits. I went away + 

In such a hurry this morning! Indeed + 

They’ve not had enough to-day! + 

That is his whisper low! + 

That is his very word! + 

You had only to stop and listen, and so + 

Very plainly you heard! + 

That duty’s the little door: + 

You must open it and go in; + 

There is nothing else to do before, + 

There is nowhere else to begin. + 

But that’s so easily done! + 

It’s such a trifling affair! + 

So nearly over as soon as begun. + 

For that he can hardly care! + 

You are turning from his call + 

If you let that duty wait; + 

You would not think any duty small + 

If you yourself were great. + 

The nearest is at life’s core; + 

With the first, you all begin: + 

What matter how little the little door + 

If it only let you in? + 

Papa, I am come again: + 

It is now three months and more + 

That I’ve tried to do the thing that was plain, + 

And I feel as small as before. + 

Your honour comes too slow? + 

How much then have you done? + 

One foot on a mole-heap, would you crow + 

As if you had reached the sun? + 

But I cannot help a doubt + 

Whether this way be the true: + 

The more I do to work it out + 

The more there comes to do; + 

And yet, were all done and past, + 

I should feel just as small, + 

For when I had tried to the very last⁠— + 

’Twas my duty, after all! + 

It is only much the same + 

As not being liar or thief! + 

One who tried it found even, with shame, + 

That of sinners he was the chief! + 

My boy, I am glad indeed + 

You have been finding the truth! + 

But where’s the good? I shall never speed⁠— + 

Be one whit greater, in sooth! + 

If duty itself must fail, + 

And that be the only plan, + 

How shall my scarce begun duty prevail + 

To make me a mighty man? + 

Ah, Willie! what if it were + 

Quite another way to fall? + 

What if the greatness itself lie there⁠— + 

In knowing that you are small? + 

In seeing the good so good + 

That you feel poor, weak, and low; + 

And hungrily long for it as for food, + 

With an endless need to grow? + 

The man who was lord of fate, + 

Born in an ox’s stall, + 

Was great because he was much too great + 

To care about greatness at all. + 

Ever and only he sought + 

The will of his Father good; + 

Never of what was high he thought, + 

But of what his Father would. + 

You long to be great; you try; + 

You feel yourself smaller still: + 

In the name of God let ambition die; + 

Let him make you what he will. + 

Who does the truth, is one + 

With the living Truth above: + 

Be God’s obedient little son, + 

Let ambition die in love. + 