Happy days; carolings of Colorado, etc.

Chapter 43: REGRET

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About This Book

A collection of lyrical poems and brief prose sketches that celebrate Colorado's natural scenery and frontier memories. The verses praise mountain and prairie landscapes, clear skies, rivers and woodlands, and combine joyful exhortation, pastoral reverie, and rustic reminiscence of early regional life. Imagery of angling, hunting, camping, and seasonal pleasures recurs alongside reflections on gladness, love, and simple living. Short prose pieces offer travel-minded vignettes of lakes and mountain canyons, together creating an overall tone of affectionate local portraiture and unpretentious lyricism.

REGRET

I know that I must die;

This is my one regret.

I hope, of course, to gain immortality,

That is, in “the sweet bye and bye!”

But, oh, to leave this world of cheer and fret,

This is my regret—my great regret.

Truly I grieve, to pass from earth away,

To realms, perchance, of brighter day.

So glad I am that I have lived and been;

That I have joyed and chafed,—and strived to keep my conscience free from sin.

Oh, if I could, gladly I would, live life’s wondrous dream of pain and pleasure o’er—aye! many times o’er again.