Let me today do something that will take A little sadness from the world's vast store, And may I be so favored as to make Of joy's too scanty sum a little more. Let me not hurt, by any selfish deed Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend. Nor would I pass unseeing worthy need, Or sin by silence when I should defend. However meager be my worldly wealth, Let me give something that shall aid my kind -- A word of courage, or a thought of health Dropped as I pass for troubled hearts to find. Let me tonight look back across the span 'Twixt dawn and dark, and to my conscience say -- Because of some good act to beast or man -- "The world is better that I lived today." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO-MORROW TO FRESH WOODS AND PASTURES NEW' by AMY LOWELL A BALLAD OF WHITECHAPEL by ISAAC ROSENBERG TO A WATERFOWL by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT SONNET: 148 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE FISHER'S BOY by HENRY DAVID THOREAU |