The Bridge Builder--Spoken Word Given by Lloyd. D. Newell

The Bridge Builder

Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell

Striving to be of service is the best way to lead a truly meaningful life. None of us walks alone—we follow trails blazed by those who went before, and countless others will come after us. When we take the time to make the journey a little easier for future travelers, we build bridges that span generations. Tennessee writer Will Allen Dromgoole understood this timeless truth. Will Allen was born in 1860, had a hard life, but became well-known for her numerous poems, essays, and books—many about the mountains and valleys of her beloved Tennessee. Perhaps she’s remembered best today for her poem “The Bridge Builder,” which speaks of the responsibilities we owe to our descendants yet to come. An old man, going a lone highway, Came, at the evening, cold and gray, To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide, Through which was flowing a sullen tide. The old man crossed in the twilight dim; The sullen stream had no fears for him; But he turned, when safe on the other side, And built a bridge to span the tide. “Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim, near, “You are wasting strength with building here; Your journey will end with the ending day; You never again must pass this way; You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide,— Why build you the bridge at the eventide?” The builder lifted his old gray head: “Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said, “There followeth after me to-day A youth, whose feet must pass this way. This chasm, that has been naught to me, To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be. He, too, must cross in the twilight dim; Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.”1 1 Rare Old Chums (1898), 83. Program #4160