The Project Gutenberg EBook of It Can Be Done, by Joseph Morris

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Title: It Can Be Done Poems of Inspiration

Author: Joseph Morris

Release Date: January 21, 2004 [EBook #10763]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IT CAN BE DONE ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Anne Folland and PG Distributed Proofreaders

IT CAN BE DONE

POEMS OF INSPIRATION

COLLECTED BY

JOSEPH MORRIS and ST. CLAIR ADAMS

FOREWORD

This is a volume of inspirational poems. Its purpose is to bring men courage and resolution, to cheer them, to fire them with new confidence when they grow dispirited, to strengthen their faith that THINGS CAN BE DONE. It is better for this purpose than the entire works of any one poet, for it takes the cream of many and has greater diversity than any one writer can show.

It is made up chiefly of very recent poems—not such as were written for anthologies of poetical "gems," but such as speak directly to the heart, always in very simple language, often in the phrases of shop or office or street. Included, however, with the poems of the day are a few of the fine old pieces that have been of comfort to men through the ages.

Besides the poems themselves, the volume contains helps to their understanding and enjoyment. The pieces are introduced by short comments; these serve the same purpose as the strain played by the pianist before the singer begins to sing; they create a mood, give a point of view, throw light on the meaning of what follows. Also the lives of the authors are briefly summarized; this is in answer to our natural interest in the writer of a poem we like, and in the case of living poets it brings together facts hardly to be found anywhere else.

Finally, the book is not one to be read and then cast aside. It is to be kept as a constant companion and an unfailing recourse in weariness or gloom. Human companions are not always in the mood to cheer us, and may talk upon themes we dislike. But this book will converse or be silent, it is never out of sorts or discouraged, and so far from being wed to some single topic, it will speak to us at any time on any subject we desire.

To many authors and publishers acknowledgment is due for generous permission to use copyright material.

CONTENTS

Abou Ben Adhem……………………….. Leigh Hunt
Answer, The………………………….. Grantland Rice
Appreciation…………………………. William Judson Kibby
Arrow and the Song, The……………….. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Awareness……………………………. Miriam Teichner

Bars of Fate, The…………………….. Ellen M.H. Gates
Battle Cry…………………………… John G. Neihardt
Belly and the Members, The…………….. William Shakespeare
Be the Best of Whatever You Are………… Douglas Malloch
Borrowed Feathers…………………….. Joseph Morris
Borrowing Trouble…………………….. Robert Burns
Brave Life…………………………… Grantland Rice

Call of the Unbeaten, The……………… Grantland Rice
Can't……………………………….. Edgar A. Guest
Can You Sing a Song?………………….. Joseph Morris
Cares……………………………….. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Celestial Surgeon, The………………… Robert Louis Stevenson
Challenge……………………………. Jean Nette
Chambered Nautilus, The……………….. Oliver Wendell Holmes
Character of a Happy Life……………… Sir Henry Wotton
Clear the Way………………………… Charles Mackay
Cleon and I………………………….. Charles Mackay
Columbus…………………………….. Joaquin Miller
Conqueror, The……………………….. Berton Braley
Co-operation…………………………. J. Mason Knox
Courage……………………………… _Florence Earle Coates
Cowards……………………………… William Shakespeare
Creed, A…………………………….. Edwin Markham

Daffodils, The……………………….. William Wordsworth
Days of Cheer………………………… James W. Foley
December 31………………………….. S.E. Kiser
De Sunflower Ain't de Daisy……………. Anonymous
Disappointed, The…………………….. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Duty………………………………… Ralph Waldo Emerson
Duty………………………………… Edwin Markham

Envoi……………………………….. John G. Neihardt
Essentials…………………………… St. Clair Adams

Fable……………………………….. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fairy Song…………………………… John Keats
Faith……………………………….. S.E. Kiser
Faith……………………………….. Edward Rowland Sill
Fighter, The…………………………. S.E. Kiser
Fighting Failure, The…………………. Everard Jack Appleton
Firm of Grin and Barrett, The………….. Sam Walter Foss
Four Things………………………….. Henry Van Dyke
Friends of Mine………………………. James W. Foley

Game, The……………………………. Grantland Rice
Gifts of God, The…………………….. George Herbert
Gift, The……………………………. Robert Burns
Gladness…………………………….. Anna Hempstead Branch
Glad Song, The……………………….. Joseph Morris
God…………………………………. Gamaliel Bradford
Good Deeds…………………………… William Shakespeare
Good Intentions………………………. St. Clair Adams
Good Name, A…………………………. William Shakespeare
Gradatim…………………………….. G. Holland
Gray Days……………………………. Griffith Alexander
Greatness of the Soul, The…………….. Alfred Tennyson
Grief……………………………….. Angela Morgan
Grumpy Guy, The………………………. Griffith Alexander

Happy Heart, The……………………… Thomas Dekker
Has-Beens, The……………………….. Walt Mason
Having Done and Doing…………………. William Shakespeare
Heinelet…………………………….. Gamaliel Bradford
Helpin' Out………………………….. William Judson Kibby
Here's Hopin'………………………… Frank L. Stanton
Hero, A………………………………