What gave you the urge a Mason to be?
To join our Fraternity ancient and free,
Was some Brother talking a bit out of turn?
And did you cock an ear to see what you could learn?
Or did somebody give you a hint on the sly,
That you'd not be invited but would have to apply?
Or was your wife's father a Past Master no less,
Well what ever it was there isn't a doubt,
That you'd hardly a clue what the Craft's all about,
Until tonight when you stood at the door,
Divested of metal and sightless and poor.
You knelt there in prayer when the questions had ceased,
You passed round the lodge and advanced to the East.
Your vows being taken and hoodwinked no more,
You continued your journey once more round the floor.
At the north eastern corner the lesson was plain,
That Charity must be a Freemason's aim.
You retired from the Lodge, would have welcomed a rest,
But in no time at all you come back fully dressed.
You summoned your pluck standing there on the floor,
You'd endured quite a lot but there wasn't much more.
The piece-de-resistance, the Charge came at last,
And for truth and for wisdom it can't be surpassed,
You'll hear it again a hundred times yet,
And I hope that its lessons you'll never forget.
Thus your First Degree ended,
It had been quite a day,
Now please listen carefully to what I have to say,
You're one foot on the ladder, and your climb will be slow,
But when you reach the top just look humbly below.
And think of tonight when you stood at the door,
Divested of metal, sightless and poor.
Source: By Brother Walter Perkins