William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920.

You Talk of This and That

YOU talk of this and that, of that and this:

Have you ever tried, since you’ve been over here,

Just being a plain American, my friend?

Have you ever lived in one of our little towns,

Worked side by side with fellow-citizens

And shared the ups and downs of life with them?

Have you ever honestly striven to accept

This country of ours that has accepted you?

If you have not, what right have you to speak?

Have you ever been upon our Western plains

Waving with untold miles of ripened wheat?

Have you known our mountains and our farms and forests,

Our townships and our populated cities

Or got into the inside of our life

Built up through years of order, progress, law?

If you have not, what right have you to speak?

Do you think that what the Pilgrim Fathers sought,

Yes, sought and found, was sought and found in vain?

Is Washington a myth and name to you?

Have you ever learned from Franklin’s homely wisdom

Or from the large humanity of Lincoln

Or studied in the school of our great men

From whom we draw our widening heritage?

If you have not, what right have you to speak?

You talk of this and that, of that and this:

Have you ever tried, since you’ve been over here,.

Just being a plain American, my friend?

If you have not, what right have you to speak?

The Outlook