Poem September 12, 1901 Issue

Dare to Try

S. E. Kiser

Chicago-Record

Dare to try!
What though a thousand critics wait
To cavil at the thing you do?
Have courage—gaze upon the great
Names written high,
And know that they had critics, too.
Whose glory men acknowledge now—
Had Colon harbored in this breast
Dread of the critic's scorn, his prow
Had ne'er been pointed to the West.

Dare to try!
Not one immortal line or word
Of Hamlet would enrich our tongue,
And no man ever would have heard
The bitter cry
From Lear's poor, bleeding bosom wrung,
Had he that touched but to adorn
Sat down in dread of critics who
Forever wait to laugh to scorn
The things that other people do.

S. E. Kiser.
In the Chicago-Record.

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