COUNT THAT DAY LOST

 

COUNT THAT DAY LOST

‘COUNT THAT DAY LOST’ is a short but one of the loveliest poems written by George Eliot.  This versatile  English author  was born on 22^nd November 1819 and passed away on 22^nd December  1880. Her original name was Mary Ann Evans. She was  a novelist, poet, journalist and translator of great fame. As a novelist she was vastly readable and is known for such popular works as The Mill on the Floss, Romola, Silas Marner, and Middle March.

                 ‘Count That Day Lost’ is an inspirational poem.  It defines the nature of a day well-spent by any unselfish and kind-hearted man who loves to cheer up the people he meets.  Our days are  not meant to be spent in doing idle things. That day will be considered as  lost when no good deed is done to some needy person.  Gainful  days are intended to add warmth to the hearts of the people we meet and by providing  brightness to their lackluster lives.     

                    The poem reads as follows:

If you sit down at set of sun

And count the acts that you have done,

And, counting find

One self-denying deed, one word

That eased the heart of him who heard;

One glance most kind,

That fell like sunshine where it went ----

Then you may count that day well spent.

 

But if, through all the livelong day,

You’ve cheered no heart, by yea or nay----

If, through it all

You’ve nothing done that you can trace

That brought the sunshine to one face----

No act most small

That helped some soul and nothing cost----

Then count that day a worse than lost.

 

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14^th July 2022                                                                          G. R. Kanwal