HOLD FAST YOUR DREAMS
“Hold Fast Your Dreams” is a poem
written by the American poet and librarian Louise Driscoll. She was born in
1875 and died in 1957. She is known for contributing poems and stories to
Poetry magazine from 1913 to 1929. One of her poems “The Metal Checks” was
awarded the highest prize in Poetry magazine’s contest in 1914.
There are
many people including poets who do not hold dreams in high esteem. According to
them dreams are products of unrealistic thinking and wastage of time. Louise
Driscoll holds the opposite view. In her ideology, dreams are worth holding
fast within our hearts. They should be kept in a secret spot where they may be
allowed to thrive and grow without any doubt and fear. She suggests that “we
should think still of lovely things that are not true, and let wish and magic
work at will in us.“
The whole poem is
inspirational. It makes the readers bold, optimistic and visionary.
Here is the full text:
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
24 February 2026
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