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Let me today do something that shall take A little sadness from the world's vast store, And may I be so favored as to make Of joy's too scanty sum a little more. Let me not hurt, by any selfish deed Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend; Nor would I pass, unseeing, worthy need, Or sin by silence when I should defend. However meager be my worldly wealth Let me give something that shall aid my kind, A word of courage, or a thought of health, Dropped as I pass for troubled hearts to find. Let me tonight look back across the span 'Twixt dawn and dark, and to my conscience say - Because of some good act to beast or man - "The world is better that I lived today." Ella Wheeler Wilcox Poems of Power W.B. Conkey Company, Chicago, 1901 |
Page Created on: November 16, 1999