Winifred Jordan's 1915 poem

Life's Sunshine and Shadows

'Tis easy to follow sunbeams
That chance like a fairy fay,
'Tis easy to pluck the blossoms
That bloom in a dream-like way,
"Tis easy to smile and be pleasant
When speech shows a golden tongue,
And easy to laugh and be merry
When hearts are joyous and youung.
'Tis harder to follow the struggle
That grips an approaching ill,
'Tis harder to smile when a sorrow
Comes limping down Misery's hill,
"Tis harder to pick up a burden,
A duty that must be borne,
"Tis harder to walk in a garden
From which all orses are shorn.
But life must have laughing and weeping,
There must be darkness and light,
It must have its thorns and blossoms,
There must be blindness and sight,
It must have its sweetness and sharpness,
There must be the new and the worn,
But what counts most in the living
Is how joy or grief in borne.

-Winifred Virginia Jordan