Sangster, Fitzgerald, Ware, Millay & Selected Poems
The Sin of Omission
It isn’t the thing you do, dear, It’s the thing you leaved undone; That gives you a bit of a heartache at the setting of the sun. The tender word forgotten, The letter you did not write, The flowers you did not send, dear, Are your haunting ghosts at night…
For life is all to short, dear, And sorrow all too great, To suffer our slow compassion That tarries until too late; And it isn’t the thing you do, dear, It’s the thing you leave undone Which gives you a bit of headache At the setting of the sun. Margaret E. Sangster
Task Begun
If a task is once begun, Never leave it until it’s done. Be the labor great or small, Do it well or not at all. Author Unknown
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on; nor all your piety nor wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, Nor all your tears wash out a word of it. Edward Fitzgerald
Whist
Life is a game of Whist. From unseen sources the cards are shuffled and the hands are dealt; Blind are our efforts to control the forces that, though unseen, are no less strongly felt. Eugene Fitch Ware
First Fig
My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But, ah my foes, and, oh, my friends-It gives a lovely light! Edna St. Vincent Millay