Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IF WE KNEW; OR, BLESSINGS OF TO-DAY, by MAY LOUISE RILEY SMITH


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IF WE KNEW; OR, BLESSINGS OF TO-DAY, by                    
First Line: If we knew the woe and heartache
Last Line: All the briers from the way.
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Mary Louise Riley
Subject(s): Home; Religion; Theology


IF we knew the woe and heart-ache
That await us on the road;
If our lips could taste the wormwood,
If our backs could feel the load;
Would we waste to-day in wishing
For a time that ne'er may be?
Would we wait in such impatience
For our ships to come from sea?
If we knew the baby fingers
Pressed against the window-pane
Would be cold and stiff to-morrow, --
Never trouble us again;
Would the bright eyes of our darling
Catch the frown upon our brow
Would the print of baby fingers
Vex Us then as they do now?
Ah! those little ice-cold fingers,
How they point our memories back
To the hasty words and actions
Strewn along the backward track!
How those little hands remind us,
As in snowy grace they lie,
Not to scatter thorns, but roses,
For the reaping by and by.
Strange, we never prize the music
Till the sweet-voiced birds have flown;
Strange, that we should slight the violets
Till the lovely flowers are gone;
Strange, that summer skies and sunshine
Never seem one half so fair
As when winter's snowy pinions
Shake the white down in the air.
Lips from which the seal of silence
None but God can roll away
Never blossomed in such beauty
As adorns the mouth to-day;
And sweet words that freight our memory
With their beautiful perfume
Come to us in sweeter accents
Through the portals of the tomb.
Let us gather up the sunbeams
Lying all around our path;
Let us keep the wheat and roses,
Casting out the thorns and chaff;
Let us find our sweetest comfort
In the blessings of to-day,
With a patient hand removing
All the briers from the way.




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