Poetry of Kansas

Cheerfulness

A scowling sky, a gloomy day,
A day quite like a sullen boy
            But tell the rest:
My sun is bright, my hours are gay:
My sun is cheerfulness; and joy
            Is in my breast.
 
Monotony and sameness brood ;
There's naught to prompt a laugh or smile;
            But none the less,
A something stirs my happy mood,
And keeps me smiling all the while;
            'Tis cheerfulness.
 
Today unpleasant things I find,
Unpleasant duties and evente;
            Yet 'tis a day
Made pleasant by a cheerful mind,
            And work is play.

In cheerfulness lie magic powers
That mix sweet pleasures with our pain,
            And smiles with tears;
That brighten up our darkest hours
And mingle sunshine with the rain,
            And hopes with fears.

__John Edward Everett.

 

Quillings in Verse
John Edward Everett
(Smith Center, Kansas: ___. 1912)
Page 50

 
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