The children bring us laughter, and the children bring us tears; <br />They string our joys, like jewels bright, upon the thread of years; <br />They bring the bitterest cares we know, their mothers' sharpest pain, <br />Then smile our world to loveliness, like sunshine after rain. <br /> <br />The children make us what we are; the childless king is spurned; <br />The children send us to the hills where glories may be earned; <br />For them we pledge our lives to strife, for them do mothers fade, <br />And count in new-born loveliness their sacrifice repaid. <br /> <br />The children bring us back to God; in eyes that dance and shine <br />Men read from day to day the proof of love and power divine; <br />For them are fathers brave and good and mothers fair and true, <br />For them is every cherished dream and every deed we do. <br /> <br />For children are the furnace fires of life kept blazing high; <br />For children on the battle fields are soldiers pleased to die; <br />In every place where humans toil, in every dream and plan, <br />The laughter of the children shapes the destiny of man.<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-children-19/
