It Can Be Done - Poems of Inspiration | Page 4

too much;?If you can fill the unforgiving minute?With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,?Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,?And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling.
From "Rudyard Kipling's Verse, 1885-1918."
INVICTUS
Triumph in spirit over adverse conditions is the keynote of this poem of courage undismayed. It rings with the power of the individual to guide his own destiny.
Out of the night that covers me,?Black as the Pit from pole to pole,?I thank whatever gods may be?For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance?I have not winced nor cried aloud.?Under the bludgeonings of chance?My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears?Looms but the Horror of the shade,?And yet the menace of the years?Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,?How charged with punishments the scroll,?I am the master of my fate:?I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley.
IT COULDN'T BE DONE
After a thing has been done, everybody is ready to declare it easy. But before it has been done, it is called impossible. One reason why people fear to embark upon great enterprises is that they see all the difficulties at once. They know they could succeed in the initial tasks, but they shrink from what is to follow. Yet "a thing begun is half done." Moreover the surmounting of the first barrier gives strength and ingenuity for the harder ones beyond. Mountains viewed from a distance seem to be unscalable. But they can be climbed, and the way to begin is to take the first upward step. From that moment the mountains are less high. As Hannibal led his army across the foothills, then among the upper ranges, and finally over the loftiest peaks and passes of the Alps, or as Peary pushed farther and farther into the solitudes that encompass the North Pole, so can you achieve any purpose whatsoever if you heed not the doubters, meet each problem as it arises, and keep ever with you the assurance It Can Be Done.
Somebody said that it couldn't be done,?But he with a chuckle replied?That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one?Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried.?So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin?On his face. If he worried he hid it.?He started to sing as he tackled the thing?That couldn't be done, and he did it.
Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never do that;?At least no one ever has done it";?But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,?And the first thing we knew he'd begun it.?With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,?Without any doubting or quiddit,?He started to sing as he tackled the thing?That couldn't be done, and he did it.
There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,?There are thousands to prophesy failure;?There are thousands to point out to you one by one,?The dangers that wait to assail you.?But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,?Just take off your coat and go to it;?Just start to sing as you tackle the thing?That "cannot be done," and you'll do it.
Edgar A. Guest.
From "The Path to Home."
THE WELCOME MAN
There's a man in the world who is never turned down, wherever he chances to stray; he gets the glad hand in the populous town, or out where the farmers make hay; he's greeted with pleasure on deserts of sand, and deep in the aisles of the woods; wherever he goes there's the welcoming hand--he's The Man Who Delivers the Goods. The failures of life sit around and complain; the gods haven't treated them white; they've lost their umbrellas whenever there's rain, and they haven't their lanterns at night; men tire of the failures who fill with their sighs the air of their own neighborhoods; there's one who is greeted with love-lighted eyes--he's The Man Who Delivers the Goods. One fellow is lazy, and watches the clock, and waits for the whistle to blow; and one has a hammer, with which he will knock, and one tells a story of woe; and one, if requested to travel a mile, will measure the perches and roods; but one does his stunt with a whistle or smile--he's The Man Who Delivers the Goods. One man is afraid that he'll labor too hard--the world isn't yearning for such; and one man is always alert, on his guard, lest he put in a minute too much; and one has a grouch or a temper that's bad, and one is a creature of moods; so it's hey for the joyous and rollicking lad--for the One Who Delivers the Goods!
Walt Mason.
From "Walt Mason, His Book."
THE QUITTER
In the famous naval duel between the Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis, John Paul Jones was hailed by his adversary to know whether he struck