IT'S hard to keep smiling when troubles are piling their weight on your neck till it's sprained; it's hard to keep grinning when others are winning the prizes for which you have strained. It's hard to be cheery on days wet and dreary, when everything near you looks drowned; it's hard to be sunny when all of your money is sunk in a hole in the ground. It's hard to keep laughing when wearily quaffing the flagon of grief to the dregs, it's harder to frolic when you have the colic, or gout at the end of your legs. But how will it aid you, when woe has waylaid you, to rumble and grumble and swear? There's nothing that's healing in kicking the ceiling, or biting the rungs from a chair. It's hard to look pleasant when anguish is present, and yet it is strictly worth while; not all of your scowling and fussing and growling can show off your grit like a smile. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOVE by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS SONNET TO HIS FRIEND R.L. IN PRAISE OF MUSIQUE AND POETRIE by RICHARD BARNFIELD INFANT SORROW, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE THAT HOLY THING by GEORGE MACDONALD THE LADY POVERTY by ALICE MEYNELL EPITAPH ON THE ADMIRABLE DRAMATIC POET, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE by JOHN MILTON |