LIFE IS ALWAS WORTH LIVING

 

                          LIFE IS ALWAS WORTH LIVING

            The English Poet Laureate Alfred Austin wrote a poem in answer to an existential question “IS LIFE WORTH  LIVING?” If you read the poem you will find the answers which were in his mind.

            Austin was born in Leeds, United Kingdom, on 30 May 1835 and died in Ashford on 2 June 1913. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896 after an interval following the death of most famous poet of his time  Lord Tennyson (1809-92).

            Alfred Austin did not become  popular for his miscellaneous  poems but for prose idylls celebrating nature.

            One of his poems which is given below justifies that life is worth living for watching  beautiful things like garden, and for all that is still ‘wrong to right like the wail of the weak against the strong, and tyranny to fight.’

            Three relevant quotes by him are:

*The glory of gardening hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.

*There is no gardening without humility.

*To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.  

              Here is full poem mentioned above:

Title: IS LIFE WORTH LIVING?

Is life worth living ? Yes, so long

As there is wrong to right,

Wail of the weak against the strong,

Or tyranny to fight;

Long as there lingers gloom to chase,

Or streaming tear to dry,

One kindred woe, one sorrowing face

That smiles as we draw nigh ;

Long as a tale of anguish swells,

The heart, and lids grow wet,

And at the sound of Christmas bells

We pardon and forget;

So long as Faith with Freedom reigns,

And loyal Hope survives,

And gracious Charity remains

To leaven lowly lives;

While there is one untrodden tract

For Intellect or Will,

And men are free to think and act,

Life is worth living still.

                                                                        *********

G.R.Kanwal

12^th January 2026