Autumn Leaves

Chapter 33: TO A FRIEND.

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

About This Book

A compact poetry collection gathers short lyrical and didactic pieces that reflect on mortality, memory, love, duty, and spiritual consolation, often using nature and seasonal imagery to frame moral and emotional insights. Many poems shift between wistful reverie and exhortation, imagining dreamlike flights, harvest metaphors about deeds and consequences, prayers, meditations on motherhood and friendship, and speculative lines about reincarnation and the afterlife. The work mixes tender sentiment, moral counsel, and pastoral description across brief, accessible poems that alternate consolation with sober reminders of life's hardships.

TO A FRIEND.

O thou fair daughter of a northern clime!
To thee, dear heart, I dedicate my rhyme.
Dost know that life to thee shouldst be sublime?

Though thou hast many problems yet to face,
Thou wilt not fall, nor falter in the race.
Nor e’en the smallest thing in life debase.

“New England” blood is coursing through my veins,
No evil deed, nor thought, thy pure heart stains.
Thy life is melody,—not sad refrains.—

In brightest life, some shadows there will be.
If thou dost bear these shadows cheerfully,
The clouds will break, and sunshine come to thee.

Not having burdens of thine own to bear,
Thou must be willing others’ griefs to share,
There are enough for all, and some to spare.
If this thou doest uncomplainingly
Thou wilt be blest throughout eternity.