<P> "The Bridge Builder" is also used by many fraternal organizations to promote the idea of building links for the future and passing the torch along for the next generation . </P> <P> It was possibly first published in 1900 in the now rare book A Builder . </P> <P> The poem appears below in its entirety; </P> <P> 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 fear 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 will pass this way; You've crossed the chasm, deep and wide - Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?" The builder lifted his old gray head: "Good friend, in the path I have come," he said, "There followeth after me today, 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 this bridge for him ." </P>

The bridge builder poem by will allen dromgoole