Lawrence Hall
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https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                         Builders of Empires

Great men of thought, of character and strength
Have built from time to time empires of industry
Empires of soldiers and sailors forcing conquests
Of ancient lands and nations for their own purposes

Great men have built ziggurats and stood upon them
Mapping the Dance of the sun, moon, and stars
Great men have written books, pondered the arts
And given us the empires of the mind

But a man alone in his cell telling his beads
Builds better and forever, for all of us

(In context “man” is gender-neutral. As Samuel Johnson would say, “And there’s an end on’t.”)

(“Empires of the mind” references a speech by Churchill at Harvard in 1943.)