I knew his face the moment that he passed
Triumphant in the thoughtless, cruel throng-
I gently touched his arm, he smiled at me
He was the Man that Once I meant to Be!
Where I had failed, he'd won from life, success;
Where I had stumbled, with sure feet he stood;
Alike, yet unlike, we faced the world,
And through the stress he found that life was good.
And I? The bitter wormwood in the glass,
The shadowed way along which failures pass!
Yet as I saw him thus, joy cane to me-
He was the Man that Once I Meant to Be!
We did not speak. But his sapient eyes
I saw the spirit that urged him on,
The courage that had held him through the fight
Had once been mine. I thought, "Can it be gone?"
He felt that unasked question, felt it so
His pale lips formed the one-word answer, "No!"
. . . . .
Too late to win? No! Not too late for me
He is the Man that Still I meant to be
image source
From "The quite courage." D. Appleton & Co.
One of my best write ups of all time
This words never die.