What is the gift of Life?
Speak thou, in young existence revelling;
To thee it is a glorious, godlike thing;
Love, Hope, and Fancy lead the joyous way;
Ambition kindles up her living ray.
There is a path of light mark’d out for thee,
A thornless path, and there thy way shall be:
A thousand spirits by thy side shall fall,
But thou shalt live, and look beyond them all:
Yes, Life indeed may seem a joyous thing.
“What is the gift of Life”
To thee, subdued and taught by Wisdom’s voice,
Wisdom of stern necessity, not choice?
Whose cup of joy is ebbing out in haste,
Who hast no fountain to supply the waste;
Whose spirit, like some traveller, gazing round,
On broken columns in the desert ground,
Sees but sad traces on a lonely scene,
Of what Life was, and what it might have been;
Oh! is not Life a sad and solemn thing?
“What is the gift of Life”
To him who reads with Heaven-instructed eye?
‘Tis the first dawning of eternity;
The future heaven just breaking on the sight;
The glimmering of a still increasing light;
Its cheering scenes foretastes of heavenly joy;
Its storms and tempests sent to purify:
Oh! is not Life a bright inspiring thing?
“What is the gift of Life”
To him whose soul through this tempestuous road
Hath pass’d, and found its home, its heaven, its God?
Who sees the boundless page of knowledge spread,
And years, as boundless, rolling o’er his head;
No cloud to darken the celestial light;
No sin to sully, and no grief to blight;
Is not that better Life a glorious thing?
(Emily Taylor)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, God Poems, Life Poems, Light Poems, Sadness Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Youth Poems, Heaven Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Hope Poems, Home PoemsBased on Keywords: thornless, sully, purify, revelling, foretastes