Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE CONTINUOUS PERFORMANCE, by BERTON BRALEY Poet's Biography First Line: It isn't fun when your hopes seem finished Last Line: If somehow or other you keep on going! Subject(s): Courage; Valor; Bravery | ||||||||
("You keep on goingmaybe you can't go much, but you do go a little." From Booth Tarkington's Alice Adams.) It isn't fun when your hopes seem finished And all your visions have come to naught, When your youth is gone and your strength diminished And broken all of the dreams you've sought. It isn't fun when your projects splendid, Your castles in Spain all glad and glowing, Crash down to ruin that can't be mended, Yet, somehow or other, you keep on going! It isn't fun when you know the glamour Is gone from life, and little remains But dull reality, dust and clamor, And puny triumphs and plodding gains. When life is a muddle of sad confusions, A tangled puzzle beyond all knowing, A mess of tarnished and cheap illusions Yet somehow or other you keep on going! It seems no use, but you just keep plodding Through force of habit; and then, and then You suddenly notice the flowers nodding Along the side of the road again. Though nevermore shall the hours be giving The thrill you knew of the past's bestowing, You'll come again to a zest in living If somehow or other you keep on going! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...UNLESS IT WAS COURAGE by MARVIN BELL THE QUALITY OF COURAGE by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET ON THE OREGON COAST; FOR WILLIAM STAFFORD by ROBERT BLY WORDS WITH WALLACE STEVENS by ROBERT BLY BUFFALO CLOUDS OVER THE MAESTRO HOON by NORMAN DUBIE A SONG OF COURAGE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE AUDACIOUS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON OH, THE WATER by DORIANNE LAUX |
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