Courage, Courage, Courage! by Edgar Albert Guest

When the burden grows heavy, and rough is the way,

When you falter and slip, and it isn't your day,

And your best doesn't measure to what is required,

When you know in your heart that you're fast growing tired,

With the odds all against you, there's one thing to do:

That is, call on your courage and see the thing through.

Who battles for victory ventures defeat.

Misfortune is something we all have to meet ;

Take the loss with the grace you would take in the gain.

When things go against you, don't whine or complain;

Just call on your courage and grin if you can.

Though you fail to succeed, do not fail as a man.

There are dark days and stormy, which come to us all,

When about us in ruin our hopes seem to fall.

But stand to whatever you happen to meet—

We must all drink the bitter as well as the sweet.

And the test of your courage is: What do you do

In the hour when reverses are coming to you.

Never changed is the battle by curse or regret,

Though you whimper and whine, still the end must be met

And who fights a good fight, though he struggle in vain,

Shall have many a vict'ry to pay for his pain.

So take your reverses as part of the plan

Which God has devised for creating a man.

By Edgar Albert Guest

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