Poetry Friday

I didn't set out to look for poems with big words. I was searching for one that talks about attitudes, and how they can shape our experiences. And there it was, pusillanimous hanging out with the other words so comfortably as though it were just another word like "ready " and "bread."

Cheerfulness Taught By Reason
by
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I think we are too ready with complaint
In this fair world of God's. Had we no hope
Indeed beyond the zenith and the slope
Of yon gray blank of sky, we might grow faint
To muse upon eternity's constraint
Round our aspirant souls; but since the scope
Must widen early, is it well to droop,
For a few days consumed in loss and taint ?
O pusillanimous Heart, be comforted
And, like a cheerful traveller, take the road
Singing beside the hedge. What if the bread
Be bitter in thine inn, and thou unshod
To meet the flints ? At least it may be said
'Because the way is short, I thank thee, God.'

Big A little a is hosting Poetry Friday Roundup this week.