In the Days When the World Was Wide, and Other Verses

<h2> The Shame of Going Back </h2> <p>When you've come to make a fortune and you haven't made your salt,<br/> And the reason of your failure isn't anybody's fault &mdash;<br/> When you haven't got a billet, and the times are very slack,<br/> There is nothing that can spur you like the shame of going back;<br/> Crawling home with empty pockets,<br/> Going back hard-up;<br/> Oh! it's then you learn the meaning of humiliation's cup.<br/> <br/> When the place and you are strangers and you struggle all alone,<br/> And you have a mighty longing for the town where you are known;<br/> When your clothes are very shabby and the future's very black,<br/> There is nothing that can hurt you like the shame of going back.<br/> <br/> When we've fought the battle bravely and are beaten to the wall,<br/> 'Tis the sneers of men, not conscience, that make cowards of us all;<br/> And the while you are returning, oh! your brain is on the rack,<br/> And your heart is in the shadow of the shame of going back.<br/> <br/> When a beaten man's discovered with a bullet in his brain,<br/> They POST-MORTEM him, and try him, and they say he was insane;<br/> But it very often happens that he'd lately got the sack,<br/> And his onward move was owing to the shame of going back.<br/> <br/> Ah! my friend, you call it nonsense, and your upper lip is curled,<br/> I can see that you have never worked your passage through the world;<br/> But when fortune rounds upon you and the rain is on the track,<br/> You will learn the bitter meaning of the shame of going back;<br/> Going home with empty pockets,<br/> Going home hard-up;<br/> Oh, you'll taste the bitter poison in humiliation's cup.<br/></p> <p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0044" id="link2H_4_0044"></SPAN></p> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />