596. Count That Day Lost by George Eliot

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) read by Classic Poetry Aloud:

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Giving voice to the poetry of the past.

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Count That Day Lost
by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (1819 – 1880)

If you sit down at set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting, find
One self-denying deed, one word
That eased the heart of him who heard,
One glance most kind
That fell like sunshine where it went -
Then you may count that day well spent.

But if, through all the livelong day,
You've cheered no heart, by yea or nay -
If, through it all
You've nothing done that you can trace
That brought the sunshine to one face-
No act most small
That helped some soul and nothing cost -
Then count that day as worse than lost.


Reading © Classic Poetry Aloud 2008