The Golden Side

by (Mrs. M[ary]. A[nn]. Kidder)

Source of witness transcribed: The Western Democrat (Charlotte, North Carolina)

Date of witness transcribed: 7 January 1868

Notes about this poem: "The Golden Side" was printed in at least 242 newspapers during the nineteenth century. It can be found using ID 478033 in this table of most widely-reprinted poems.

In some reprintings this poem is attributed to M. A. Kidder, most well known as an author of hymns, but it was printed far more often anonymously.

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• There is many a rest in the road of life,
• If only we would stop to take it;
• And many a tone from the better land,
• If the querulous heart would make it!
• To the sunny soul, that is full of hope,
• And whose beautiful trust ne’er faileth,
• The grass is green and the flowers bright,

• Though the wintry storm prevaileth.

• Better to hope though the clouds hang low,
• And to keep the eye still lifted;
• For the sweet blue sky will soon peep through,
• When the ominous clouds are rifted!
• There was never a night without a day,
• Or an evening without a morning;
• And the darkest hour, as the proverb goes,

• Is the hour before the dawning.

• There is many a gem in the path of life,
• Which we pass in our idle pleasure,
• That is richer far than the jeweled crown,
• Or the miser’s hoarded treasure;
• It may be the love of a little child,
• Or a mother’s prayers to Heaven,
• Or a beggar’s grateful thanks

• For a cup of water given.

• Better to weave in the web of life
• A bright and golden filling
• And to do God’s will with a ready heart,
• And hands that are swift and willing,
• Than to snap the delicate minute, threads
• Of our curious lives asunder;
• And then blame Heaven for the tangled ends,
• And sit and grieve and wonder.