I

As newer comers crowd the fore,
         We drop behind.
- We who have laboured long and sore
        Times out of mind,
And keen are yet, must not regret
        To drop behind.

II

Yet there are of us some who grieve
        To go behind;
Staunch, strenuous souls who scarce believe
        Their fires declined,
And know none cares, remembers, spares
        Who go behind.

III

'Tis not that we have unforetold
        The drop behind;
We feel the new must oust the old
        In every kind;
But yet we think, must we, must WE,
        Too, drop behind?