Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOY DAY, by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOY DAY, by                    
First Line: Not dreams, not fairy tales, but deeds
Last Line: Of what shall be the paradise.
Subject(s): Children; Christmas; Toys; Childhood; Nativity, The


NOT dreams, not fairy tales, but deeds —
These are the things the sad world needs,
The deeds whose kindness stirs the mart
And binds the wounds of the city's heart,
The deeds whose mighty virtue can
Bring us together, — man to man, —
Wipe out old wrongs, uplift all men,
And bring Christ's kingdom back again.

I hold that such were done to-day
Here in the city's clanging way,
By those who went from door to door
Where dwell the children of the poor,
And left with them their Christmas toys
For all those countless girls and boys
Whose lives are pitiful because
They have no bounteous Santa Claus.

Oh! age by age we more slowly climb
The hill-stairs of the better time
For, year by year our greed grows less —
Man really hates his selfishness,
Though struggling oft in vain, he wins
A conquest sometimes over sins,
And on those days the visions rise
Of what shall be the Paradise.





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