Stephen V. Benet

All: Thomas Jefferson,

What do you say

Under the gravestone

Hidden away?

Solo 1: “I was a giver,

I was a molder,

I was a builder

With a strong shoulder.”

All: Six feet and over,

Large-boned and ruddy,

The eyes grey-hazel

But bright with study.

Solo 1: “They call you rascal?

They called me worse.

You’d do grand things, sir,

But lack the purse?

“I got no riches.

I died a debtor.

I died free-hearted

And that was better.

“For life was freakish

But life was fervent,

And I was always

Life’s willing servant.

“Life, life’s too weighty?

Too long a haul, sir?

I lived past eighty.

I liked it all, sir.”