24 Line Poems

Table of Contents

1. If I Were A Sunbeam

   by Alice Cary | Total Words: 108, Lines: 24

   
   

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   "If I were a sunbeam,
   I know what I'd do;
   I would seek white lilies,
   Roaming woodlands through.
   I would steal among them,
   Softest light I'd shed,
   Until every lily
   Raised its drooping head.
   

   "If I were a sunbeam,
   I know where I'd go;
   Into lowly hovels,
   Dark with want and woe:
   Till sad hearts looked upward,
   I would shine and shine;
   Then they'd think of heaven,
   Their sweet home and mine."
   

   Are you not a sunbeam,
   Child, whose life is glad
   With an inner brightness
   Sunshine never had?
   Oh, as God has blessed you,
   Scatter light divine!
   For there is no sunbeam
   But must die or shine.
   

2. Contentment

   by Edward Dyer | Total Words: 165, Lines: 24

   
   

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   My mind to me a kingdom is;
   Such perfect joy therein I find
   As far excels all earthly bliss
   That God or Nature hath assigned;
   Though much I want that most would have,
   Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
   

   Content I live; this is my stay,—
   I seek no more than may suffice.
   I press to bear no haughty sway;
   Look, what I lack my mind supplies.
   Lo, thus I triumph like a king,
   Content with that my mind doth bring.
   

   I laugh not at another's loss,
   I grudge not at another's gain;
   No worldly wave my mind can toss;
   I brook that is another's bane.
   I fear no foe, nor fawn on friend;
   I loathe not life, nor dread mine end.
   

   My wealth is health and perfect ease;
   My conscience clear my chief defense;
   I never seek by bribes to please
   Nor by desert to give offense.
   Thus do I live, thus will I die;
   Would all did so as well as I!
   

3. Amazing Grace

   by John Newton | Total Words: 146, Lines: 24

   
   

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   Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
   That saved a wretch like me!
   I once was lost, but now am found,
   Was blind, but now I see.
   

   'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
   And grace my fears relieved;
   How precious did that grace appear,
   The hour I first believed!
   

   Through many dangers, toils and snares,
   I have already come;
   'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
   And grace will lead me home.
   

   The Lord has promised good to me,
   His word my hope secures;
   He will my shield and portion be,
   As long as life endures.
   

   Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail
   And mortal life shall cease;
   I shall possess, within the veil,
   A life of joy and peace.
   

   The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
   The sun forbear to shine;
   But God, who called me here below,
   Will be forever mine.
   

4. Somebody Said it Couldn't Be Done

   by Edgar Albert Guest | Total Words: 207, Lines: 24

   
   

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   Somebody said that it couldn’t be done
   But he with a chuckle replied
   That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
   Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
   So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
   On his face. If he worried he hid it.
   He started to sing as he tackled the thing
   That couldn’t be done, and he did it!
   

   Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
   At least no one ever has done it;”
   But he took off his coat and he took off his hat
   And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
   With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
   Without any doubting or quiddit,
   He started to sing as he tackled the thing
   That couldn’t be done, and he did it.
   

   There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
   There are thousands to prophesy failure,
   There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
   The dangers that wait to assail you.
   But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
   Just take off your coat and go to it;
   Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
   That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.
   

5. Loving and Forgiving

   by Charles Swain | Total Words: 111, Lines: 24

   
   

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   Oh, loving and forgiving—
   Ye angel-words of earth,
   Years were not worth the living
   If ye too had not birth!
   Oh, loving and forbearing—
   How sweet your mission here;
   The grief that ye are sharing
   Hath blessings in its tear.
   

   Oh, stern and unforgiving
   Ye evil words of life,
   That mock the means of living
   With never-ending strife.
   Oh, harsh and unrepenting—
   How would ye meet the grave,
   If Heaven, as unrelenting,
   Forbore not, nor forgave!
   

   Oh, loving and forgiving—
   Sweet sisters of the soul,
   In whose celestial living
   The passions find control!
   Still breathe your influence o'er us
   Whene'er by passion crost.
   And, angel-like, restore us
   The paradise we lost.
   

6. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

   by William Wordsworth | Total Words: 150, Lines: 24

   
   

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   I wandered lonely as a cloud
   That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
   When all at once I saw a crowd,
   A host, of golden daffodils;
   Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
   Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

   Continuous as the stars that shine
   And twinkle on the milky way,
   They stretched in never-ending line
   Along the margin of a bay:
   Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
   Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

   The waves beside them danced; but they
   Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
   A poet could not but be gay,
   In such a jocund company:
   I gazed—gazed—but little thought
   What wealth the show to me had brought:

   For oft, when on my couch I lie
   In vacant or in pensive mood,
   They flash upon that inward eye
   Which is the bliss of solitude;
   And then my heart with pleasure fills,
   And dances with the daffodils.

7. Coasting Down the Hill

   by Anonymous

   
   

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   Frosty is the morning;
   But the sun is bright,
   Flooding all the landscape
   With its golden light.
   Hark the sounds of laughter
   And the voices shrill!
   See the happy children
   Coasting down the hill.
   

   There are Tom and Charley,
   And their sister Nell;
   There are John and Willie,
   Kate and Isabel,—
   Eyes with pleasure beaming,
   Cheeks with health aglow;
   Bless the merry children,
   Trudging through the snow!
   

   Now I hear them shouting,
   "Ready! Clear the track!"
   Down the slope they're rushing,
   Now they're trotting back.
   Full of fun and frolic,
   Thus they come and go.
   Coasting down the hillside,
   Trudging through the snow.
   

8. How the Flowers Grow

   by Gabriel Setoun

   
   

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   This is how the flowers grow;
   I have watched them, and I know.
   

   First, above the ground is seen
   A tiny blade of purest green,
   Reaching up and peeping forth
   East and west, and south and north.
   

   Then it shoots up day by day,
   Growing in a curious way
   Round a blossom, which it keeps
   Warm and cozy while it sleeps.
   

   Then the sunbeams find their way
   To the sleeping bud and say,
   “We are children of the sun,
   Sent to wake thee, little one.”
   

   And the leaflet, opening wide,
   Shows the tiny bud inside,
   Peeping with half-opened eye
   On the bright and sunny sky.
   

   Breezes from the west and south
   Lay their kisses on its mouth;
   Till the petals all are grown,
   And the bud’s a flower blown.
   

   This is how the flowers grow;
   I have watched them and I know.
   

9. The Patch

   Joseph Warren Gardiner

   
   

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   When I see, beside the way,
   The little urchin there at play,
   With a patch on either knee,
   What is it that impresses me?
   Memory of a mother dear,
   Laid long since upon her bier,
   Who, when I was young and small,
   Darned and mended for us all.
   

   Patiently, with thread and thimble,
   Eyes yet clear and fingers nimble,
   While we nestled close in bed,
   Through the patch the needle sped.
   Hence the patch so comely, neat,
   On little trousers knee or seat,
   Speaks to me of comfort near,
   Of a home and mother dear.
   

   New clothes fit and trim may be
   Worn by urchins whom we see;
   Rags may flutter on the street,
   Shoeless boys or shod may meet;
   Still to us no sign they give,
   Save that poor or rich they live,
   Boys who wear the neat patch prove
   A mother's care, a mother's love.
   

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