The End of Our Pen - A poem by Mrs. Elvira Robinson

The End of Our Pen.

When over life's sunshine the dark clouds thick gathered
Enshrouding hope's star from our sorrowing ken;
Let us not sit us down on the darkness sore moaning,
But search for the light with "the end of our pen!"

When the cares of this world on our hearts press so
heavy.
And soul-sick and weary we long for the end;
Let us not meekly sink 'neath the burden we're bearing,
But roll it all off at "the end of our pen!"

When our feet tread a way that is rugged and thorny
Through a waste and a wilderness; oh, let us then,
In the midst of the stones and the stumbling-blocks
near us,
Pick out a smooth path with "the end of our pen!"

When falsehood assails us, and dimmed is truth's armor
By malice and treachery, let us not then
Lie down weakly, crushed beneath envy and hatred,
But ward off their shafts with "the end of our pen!"

And one lesson in life, if we learn it in anguish,
That "trust once betrayed ne'er returneth again;"
Let us spurn all the weakness of sorrow and mourning
And scratch it all off at "the end of our pen!"

A solace for grief, a half-cure for all trouble,
A sweetener of sorrowful moments I ken:
Is the power that is found in the mind's wide embracings,
Are the thoughts that flew off at the end of our pen!"

^__Mrs. Elvira Robinson.

Poets and Poetry of Kansas
Edited by Thomas W. Herringshaw
(Chicago: American Publishers' Association. 1894)
Pages 323-324