Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE GIFT OF PLAY, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE GIFT OF PLAY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Some have the gift of song and some possess the gift of silver speech
Last Line: Defy the withering blasts of age because they have the gift of play.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Play


Some have the gift of song and some possess the gift of silver speech,
Some have the gift of leadership and some the ways of life can teach.
And fame and wealth reward their friends; in jewels are
their splendors told,
But in good time their favorites grow very faint and gray and old.
But there are men who laugh at time and hold the cruel years at bay;
They romp through life forever young because they have the
gift of play.

They walk with children, hand in hand, through daisy fields
and orchards fair,
Nor all the dignity of age and power and pomp can follow there;
They've kept the magic charm of youth beneath the wrinkled
robe of Time,
And there's no friendly apple tree that they have grown too
old to climb.
They have not let their boyhood die; they can be children for the day;
They have not bartered for success and all its praise, the
gift of play.

They think and talk in terms of youth; with love of life
their eyes are bright;
No rheumatism of the soul has robbed them of the world's delight;
They laugh and sing their way along and join in pleasures
when they can,
And in their glad philosophy they hold that mirth becomes a man.
They spend no strength in growing old. What if their brows
be crowned with gray?
The spirits in their breasts are young. They still possess
the gift of play.

The richest men of life are not the ones who rise to wealth
and fame --
Not the great sages, old and wise, and grave of face and
bent of frame,
But the glad spirits, tall and straight, who 'spite of time
and all its care,
Have kept the power to laugh and sing and in youth's
fellowship to share.
They that can walk with boys and be a boy among them, blithe and gay,
Defy the withering blasts of Age because they have the gift of play.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net