LAUGH AND BE MERRY

 

          LAUGH AND BE MERRY

“Laugh And Be Merry” is the title of an inspirational poem written by John Masefield (1878-1967). He was England’s poet laureate since 1930.

According to several critics, he was interested in common people and everyday concerns. He was a down-to-earth and robust writer.

During his long life of active writing, he produced novels, boys’ adventure stories, plays, essays, biographies, and accounts of his own war experiences, but his poetry tops them all in importance.

Among his famous poems are The Everlasting Mercy, Reynard the Fox and Sea Fever.

Several poets, saints, sages and philosophers believe that the world is a place of sorrows and sufferings where laughing is out of place.

 In his poem, mentioned above, Masefield advises his readers to laugh and be merry.  Remember the world “with a song; a blow in the teeth of a wrong.” “Battle and work, and drink the wine outpoured in the dear green earth, the sign of the joy of the world”. Live “like brothers akin, guesting awhile in the rooms of a beautiful inn. “ Laugh till the game is played.

The detailed text of the poem reads as follows.

 

“Laugh and be merry, remember, better the world with a song,

Better the world with a blow in the teeth of a wrong.

Laugh, for the time is brief, a thread the length of a span.

Laugh and be proud to belong to the old proud pageant of man.

 

Laugh and be merry: remember, in olden time.

God made Heaven and Earth for joy He took in a rhyme,

Made them, and filled them full with the strong red wine of His mirth

The splendid joy of the stars: the joy of the earth.

 

So we must laugh and drink from the deep blue cup of the sky,

Join the jubilant song of the great stars sweeping by,

Laugh, and battle, and work, and drink of the wine outpoured

In the dear green earth, the sign of the joy of the Lord.

 

Laugh and be merry together, like brothers akin,

Guesting awhile in the rooms of a beautiful inn,

Glad till the dancing stops, and the lilt of the music ends.

Laugh till the game is played; and be you merry, my friends.”                            

 

To conclude, a quote by the English essayist and poet Charles Lamb (1775-1834): A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market.           

 

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G.R.Kanwal

17^th March 2025