Whatever be the depth of woe Along the path that I must go, I'll sing my songโ My song of joy for all the love That's lavished on us from above, And count no loss of treasure-trove When things go wrong. I'll sing the sunlight, and the bright Soft smiling stars that gem the night; For gifts of good That God hath spread along my way, The lilt of birds in tuneful play, The harvests full and flowers gay, The whole day long I'll sing my song Of gratitude!
John Kendrick BangsA nasty day! A nasty day! 'Twas thus I heard a critic say Because the skies were bleak and grayโ And yet it somehow seemed to me The day was all that it should be. I looked it very closely o'er; Its hours still were twenty-four, With sixty minutes eachโno lessโ For deeds of good and helpfulness; And every second full of chance To give the day significance; And every hour full of growth For everybody but the slothโ I couldn't see it quite that way, For though the skies were bleak and gray The day itself, it seemed to me, Was all a day could rightly be.
John Kendrick BangsI like the man who takes the stones Upon his rocky road With smiling lips instead of groans, Whate'er his heavy load Who seizes each as on he goes, And neatly crumbles it, And turns his share of pebbly woes To stores of inner grit.
John Kendrick BangsAlthough man is already ninety per cent water, the Prohibitionists are not yet satisfied.
John Kendrick BangsIf I had my way no one should be taught to read until after he had passed his hundredth year. In that way, and in that way only can we protect our youth from the dreadful influence of such novels as 'Three Cycles, Not To Mention The Rug,' which dreadful book I have found within the past month in the hands of at least twenty children in the neighborhood, not one of whom was past sixty.
John Kendrick Bangs