The Great

How do the great make their marks on swift time?
Do they fight a new war, find a mountain to climb?
Do they walk the new road, or talk the new speech?
Do they find the new way, and everyone teach?
How to the great make their mark in the book,
whose pages are brief, at which no one will look?
They live their own lives as new as from old
great is a label which does not keep away cold
the great are not lost when the alarm bell rings
they stay in the mind for doing great things
greatness is measured not by the remembrance
but rather by the worth and not the expense
So how do the great make their marks on swift time?
I confess not to know, and hope someone sees mine.