 | Rhymes with reason and without |  |
XXXVII.
BE JOLLY.
Be jolly! drop the “minor key” of sorrow,Nor 'plain of troubles that may never rise;
Make happy every moment as it flies,
And to its portion leave the coming morrow.
Long, dismal faces, and a dismal mood,
Across our pathway should they chance to run,
As envious clouds do muffle up the sun,
Drown all our joy as with a sombre flood.
O, for the heart to smile at every fate,
Laugh like the old Greek in the antique story,
Or, like Mark Tapley, still 'mid trouble glory,
And feel within its shadows more elate!
Give me a man that relishes a laugh,—
I'd trust him sooner than a gloomy one by half.
| Rhymes with reason and without | |