Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO GIVE ONE'S LIFE by MARY CAROLYN DAVIES

First Line: TO GIVE ONE'S LIFE THROUGH EIGHTY YEARS IS HARDER
Last Line: THAN TO GIVE IT IN A MOMENT, GLORIOUSLY.
To give one's life through eighty years is harder
Than to give it in one moment gloriously;
To make each instant a brown willow basket
Heaped with fresh flowers and ferns; to ever be

A cup of never-failing cool spring water
To those who walk a dusty road alone;
To succor with life-giving bread, regardless,
Those who expect a stone.

To give one's life, on weary days and hopeless;
To give one's life, hour after hour, and be
Ready to give again, again, is harder
Than to give it in a moment, gloriously.



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