I Slept, and Dreamed that Life was Beauty

  

I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Toil on, sad heart, courageously,
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A noonday light and truth to thee.

 Ellen Sturgis Hooper

Legacies

                                                                                                                                                                                         

Unto my friends I give my thoughts,
Unto my God my soul,
Unto my foe I leave my love–
These are of life the whole.
Nay, there is something–a trifle–left;
Who shall receive this dower?
See, Earth Mother, a handful of dust–
Turn it into a flower.

Ethelwyn Wetherald

                                                              

How He Died

So he died for his faith. That is fine.
More than most of us do.
But stay; can you add to that line
That he lived for it too?

It is easy to die. Men have died
For a wish or a whim --
From bravado, from passion or pride;
Was it harder for him?

But to live; every day to live out
All the truth that he dreamt,
While his friends met his conduct with doubt,
And the world with contempt --

Was it thus that he plodded ahead,
Never turning aside?
Then we'll talk of the life that he led,
Never mind how he died.

Ernest Howard Crosby