EARTHLY THINGS ARE NOT FOREVER

 

EARTHLY THINGS ARE NOT FOREVER

            “Earthly Things Are Not Forever” is the theme of a poem “This, Too, Shall Pass Away” written by the American poet and story writer Lanta Wilson Smith. She was born on July 19, 1856 and died on October 19, 1939.  

            She was a prolific writer, wrote more than five hundred poems, articles and hymns. In “This, Too, Shall Pass Away “ she tells the readers that all good and bad situations are temporary. No event in this world lasts forever. If easy  times are short-lived, so are difficult times. Life’s nature of joy and sorrow is cyclic. One follows the other. If prosperity is transient, so is adversity.

            Mrs. Smith advises her readers not to become sad when some unhappy event or failure takes place. They have just to tell themselves that this situation, too, is ephemeral. It will pass away, not stay forever.

            Here are some important lines from the poem:

*When some great sorrow, like a mighty river,

Flows through your life with peace-destroying power,

And dearest things are swept from sight forever,

Say to your heart each trying hour:

“This, too, shall pass away.”

 

**When ceaseless toil has hushed your song of gladness,

And you have grown almost too tired to pray,

Let this truth banish from your heart its sadness,

And ease the burden of each trying day:

“This, too, shall pass away.”

 

***When fortune smiles, and, full of mirth and pleasure,

The days are flitting by without a care,

Lest you should rest with only earthly treasure,

Let these few words their fullest import bear:

“This, too, shall pass away.”

            And finally:

****When earnest labor brings you fame and glory,

And all earth’s noblest ones upon you smile,

Remember that life’s longest, grandest story

Fills but a moment in earth’s little while:

“This, too, shall pass away.”

 

                                    *******

G.R.Kanwal

18 July 2025