Explore "Hem and Haw" by Bliss Carman on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Hem and Haw were the sons of sin, / Created to shally and shirk; / Hem lay 'round and Haw looked on / While God did all the work.
Hem was a fogy, and Haw was a prig, / For both had the dull, dull mind; / And whenever they found a thing to do, / They yammered and went it blind.
Hem was the father of bigots and bores; / As the sands of the sea were they. / And Haw was the father of all the tribe / Who criticise to-day.
But God was an artist from the first, / And knew what he was about; / While over his shoulder sneered these two, / And advised him to rub it out.
They prophesied ruin ere man was made: / "Such folly must surely fail! " / And when he was done, "Do you think, my Lord, / He's better without a tail? "
And still in the honest working world, / With posture and hint and smirk, / These sons of the devil are standing by / While Man does all the work.
They balk endeavor and baffle reform, / In the sacred name of law; / And over the quavering voice of Hem / Is the droning voice of Haw.