Courage, Courage, Courage!

Poem for the Day

Courage, Courage, Courage!
by Edgar Albert Guest

When the burden grows heavy, and rough is the way, 
When you falter and slip, and it isn't your day, 
And your best doesn't measure to what is required, 
When you know in your heart that you're fast growing tired, 
With the odds all against you, there's one thing to do: 
That is, call on your courage and see the thing through.

Who battles for victory ventures defeat. 
Misfortune is something we all have to meet ; 
Take the loss with the grace you would take in the gain. 
When things go against you, don't whine or complain; 
Just call on your courage and grin if you can. 
Though you fail to succeed, do not fail as a man.

There are dark days and stormy, which come to us all, 
When about us in ruin our hopes seem to fall. 
But stand to whatever you happen to meet— 
We must all drink the bitter as well as the sweet. 
And the test of your courage is: What do you do 
In the hour when reverses are coming to you.

Never changed is the battle by curse or regret, 
Though you whimper and whine, still the end must be met 
And who fights a good fight, though he struggle in vain, 
Shall have many a vict'ry to pay for his pain.
So take your reverses as part of the plan 
Which God has devised for creating a man. 

Courage

Poem for the Day

Courage
by Edgar Albert Guest

Courage isn't a brilliant dash,
A daring deed in a moment's flash;
It isn't an instantaneous thing
Born of despair with a sudden spring
It isn't a creature of flickered hope
Or the final tug at a slipping rope;
But it's something deep in the soul of man
That is working always to serve some plan.

Courage isn't the last resort
In the work of life or the game of sport;
It isn't a thing that a man can call
At some future time when he's apt to fall;
If he hasn't it now, he will have it not
When the strain is great and the pace is hot.
For who would strive for a distant goal
Must always have courage within his soul.

Courage isn't a dazzling light
That flashes and passes away from sight;
It's a slow, unwavering, ingrained trait
With the patience to work and the strength to wait.
It's part of a man when his skies are blue,
It's part of him when he has work to do.
The brave man never is freed of it.
He has it when there is no need of it.

Courage was never designed for show;
It isn't a thing that can come and go;
It's written in victory and defeat
And every trial a man may meet.
It's part of his hours, his days and his years,
Back of his smiles and behind his tears.
Courage is more than a daring deed:
It's the breath of life and a strong man's creed. 

Couldn't Live Without You

Poem for the Day

Couldn't Live Without You
by Edgar Albert Guest

You're just a little fellow with a lot of funny ways,
Just three-foot-six of mischief set with eyes that fairly blaze;
You're always up to something with those busy hands o' yours,
And you leave a trail o' ruin on the walls an' on the doors,
An' I wonder, as I watch you, an' your curious tricks I see,
Whatever is the reason that you mean so much to me.

You're just a chubby rascal with a grin upon your face,
Just seven years o' gladness, an' a hard and trying case;
You think the world's your playground, an' in all you say an' do
You fancy everybody ought to bow an' scrape to you;
Dull care's a thing you laugh at just as though 'twill never be,
So I wonder, little fellow, why you mean so much to me.

Now your face is smeared with candy or perhaps it's only dirt,
An' it's really most alarming how you tear your little shirt;
But I have to smile upon you, an' with all your wilful ways,
I'm certain that I need you 'round about me all my days;
Yes, I've got to have you with me, for somehow it's come to be
That I couldn't live without you, for you're all the world to me. 

Contradictin' Joe

Poem of the Day

Contradictin' Joe
by Edgar Albert Guest

Heard of Contradictin' Joe?
Most contrary man I know.
Always sayin', 'That's not so.'

Nothing's ever said, but he
Steps right up to disagree- 
Quarrelsome as he can be.

If you start in to recite
All the details of a fight,
He'll butt in to set you right.

Start a story that is true,
He'll begin correctin' you- 
Make you out a liar, too!

Mention time o' year or day,
Makes no difference what you say,
Nothing happened just that way.

Bet you, when his soul takes flight,
An' the angels talk at night,
He'll butt in to set 'em right.

There where none should have complaints
He will be with 'no's' and 'ain'ts'
Contradictin' all the saints. 

Contentment

Poem for the Day

Contentment
by Edgar Albert Guest

When e'er I 'm sad, why then I 'm glad
To think that I 'm no sadder;
And when I 'm glad, I 'm a happy lad
To think none could be gladder. 

Constant Beauty

Poem for the Day

Constant Beauty
by Edgar Albert Guest

It's good to have the trees again, the singing of the breeze again,
It's good to see the lilacs bloom as lovely as of old.
It's good that we can feel again the touch of beauties real again,
For hearts and minds, of sorrow now, have all that they can hold.

The roses haven't changed a bit, nor have the lilacs stranged a bit,
They bud and bloom the way they did before the war began.
The world is upside down to-day, there's much to make us frown to-day,
And gloom and sadness everywhere beset the path of man.

But now the lilacs bloom again and give us their perfume again,
And now the roses smile at us and nod along the way;
And it is good to see again the blossoms on each tree again,
And feel that nature hasn't changed the way we have to-day.

Oh, we have changed from what we were; we're not the carefree lot we were;
Our hearts are filled with sorrow now and grave concern and pain,
But it is good to see once more, the blooming lilac tree once more,
And find the constant roses here to comfort us again. 

Consolation

Poem for the Day

Consolation
by Edgar Albert Guest

SO YOU 'RE sobbin' in the night time, an' you 're sighin' through the day, 
An' your heart is ever callin' for the loved one gone away; 
An' you're lonely, oh, so lonely! an' there's nothin' friends can do,
That will start the old light shinin' in those tender eyes of blue.

I 'm not goin' to try to tell you that you shouldn't sit an' sigh, 
An' I 'm not the one to whisper: 'You'll feel better by an' by;'
But joy isn't everlasting till this earthly life is done,
If it was, no cloud would ever hide the shinin' mornin' sun.

We must sip of joy an' sorrow, we must weep an' laugh in turn, 
We must win love but to lose it, an' our hearts with grief must burn; 
For the lasting joys are Heaven's, we can't hope to find them here, 
Every one who loves must some day weep beside a loved one's bier.

To have known love an' deserved it, is our highest point of bliss, 
There 's no happiness for mortals that can greater be than this; 
An' though Death comes in an' robs us of our priceless jewels, we 
Who have loved an' lost know something of the joys that are to be.