HOLD FAST YOUR DREAMS

 

          HOLD FAST YOUR DREAMS

            ‘‘Hold Fast Your Dreams” is an inspirational poem written by the American poet and stories writer Louise Driscoll (1875-1957).

She lived most of her life in Catskill, New York, where she worked as a librarian and contributed her writings to Poetry magazine from 1913-1929.

            “Hold Fast Your Dreams” is a beautiful poem which inspires the readers to keep their invigorating and optimistic dreams in a secret spot of their hearts.

The English poet-dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616)  said: The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues.

            Louis Driscoll lays emphasis on entertaining positive , joyous and victorious dreams  even in the face of adverse circumstances and harsh realities.

            To put it briefly, the poetess believes that the beauty of a person’s life is what his dreams make it.  We must not therefore abandon our dreams.

Her clarion call is: Hold Fast Your Dreams.

            What follows is the full text of the poem:

Hold fast your dreams!
Within your heart
Keep one still, secret spot
Where dreams may go,
And, sheltered so,
May thrive and grow
Where doubt and fear are not.
O keep a place apart,
Within your heart,
For little dreams to go!

Think still of lovely things that are not true.
Let wish and magic work at will in you.
Be sometimes blind to sorrow. Make believe!
Forget the calm that lies
In disillusioned eyes.
Though we all know that we must die,
Yes you and I
May walk like gods and be
Even now at home in immortality.

We see so many ugly things—
Deceits and wrongs and quarrelings;
We know, alast we know
How quickly fade
The color in the west,
The bloom upon the flower,
The bloom upon the breast
And youth's blind hour.
Yet keep within your heart
A place apart
Where little dreams may go,
May thrive and grow.
Hold fast—hold fast your dreams!

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

15 April 2025