Poetry Corner: December 2019
Even as a young child I enjoyed the premise of poetry… the construction of its meter and rhyme and the many themes it could espouse.
My great aunt was a schoolteacher. After she passed, her belongings went to my grandma. When my grandma passed, they became my granddad’s. When he passed, I found this book from 1948 entitled Best Loved Poems.
One of my favorite poems that I’ve shared with people whose paths I’ve crossed in my life is found in the “Faith & Immoratlity” chapter by Lanta Wilson Smith. The poem is spearheaded by perseverance and rests on the strength of looking past the immediate problem at times while also not allowing great success cloud interrupt a core of humility.
This, Too, Shall Pass Away
When some great sorrow, like a mighty river,
Flows through your life with peace-destroying power
And dearest things are swept from sight forever,
Say to your heart each trying hour:
“This, too, shall pass away.”
When ceaseless toil has hushed your song of gladness,
And you have grown almost too tired to pray,
Let this truth banish from your heart its sadness,
And ease the burdens of each trying day:
“This, too, shall pass away.”
When fortune smiles, and, full of mirth and pleasure,
The days are flitting by without a care,
Lest you should rest with only earthly treasure,
Let these few words their fullest import bear:
“This, too, shall pass away.”
When earnest labor brings you fame and glory,
And all earth’s noblest ones upon you smile,
Remember that life’s longest, grandest story
Fills but a moment in earth’s little while:
“This, too, shall pass away.”