Save the Cathedral! (4)

Hero

 

He worked alone in cold, intensely black

peat water.  Had to feel his way.  Laid down

one hundred thousand concrete blocks, around

a million bricks, and carried on his back

uncounted thousands of the concrete bags

which shored the Minster up.  Six endless years

he toiled in tedium.  If bored to tears,

he never said so.  And if he hit snags,

he overcame them on his own.  Such men --

not loud, not proud, not looking for reward --

are just the type we really should applaud.

Perhaps there were more William Walkers then:

clear-eyed, unfussy, knowing what to do,

and quietly disposed to see it through. 

Author's Note

(1) One hundred thousand concrete blocks: Actually, it was 115,000.
(2) Minster: Another word for Cathedral.
(3) then: Walker carried out his heroic work between 1906 and 1911, an era when, perhaps, uncomplaining devotion to duty was more common than it is today.