Character Poetry

With Every Rising of the Sun






With every rising of the sun



Think of your ilfe as just begun.





The past had shriived and buried deep



All yesterdays - there let them sleep.....





Concern yourself with but today,



Woo it and teach it to obey,





Your wish and will. Since time began



Today has been the friend of man....

You and today! a soul sublime
And the great pregnant hour of time.
With God between to bind the twain -
Go forth I say - attain - attain.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox


Two Kinds Of People

There are two kinds of people on earth today,

Just two kinds of people, no more, I say,

Not the good and the bad, for 'tis well understood

The good are half bad and the bad are half good.



Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years

Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears.

Not the rich and the poor, for to count a man's wealth

You must first know the state of his conscience and health.



Not the humble and proud, for in life's busy span

Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man.

No! The two kinds of people on earth I mean

Are the people who lift, and the people who lean.



Wherever you go you will find the world's masses

Are ever divided in just these two classes.

And, strangely enough, you will find, too, I wean,

There is only one lifter to twenty who lean.



This one question I ask. Are you easing the load

Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road?

Or are you a leaner who lets others bear

Your portion of worry and labor and care?



Ella Wheeler Wilcox