My Virtual Reading Room

I Believe

I believe in friendship, and I believe in trees,
And I believe in hollyhocks a-swaying in the breeze,
And I believe in robins and roses white and red,
And rippling brooks and rivers and blue skies overhead,
And I believe in laughter, and I believe in love,
And I believe the daffodils believe in God above.

I am no unbeliever. I know that men are true,
I know the joy of summer time when skies above are blue,
I know there is no earthly power can shape a budding rose,
Or bring a daisy into bloom; with all that wisdom knows
It could not fashion, if it would, the humblest blade of grass
Or stretch a living carpet where the weary travelers pass.

I believe in friendship, for I have found it good,
And I believe in kindly words, for I have understood;
My faith is founded on the years and all that I have seen,
Something of God I've looked upon no matter where I've been.
Within a swamp but yesterday a lily smiled at me
And only God could set it there to bloom for me to see.

(Edgar A. Guest)

Song

When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress-tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.

(Christina Georgina Rossetti)

Seen in TV guide:

History Channel program on Saturday, March 27, 2010:

10:00: "Sex in the Civil War"

11:00: "More Sex in the Civil War"