"Earnest Willie," or, Echoes from a recluse : containing the letters, poems, addresses and sketches -- chiefly moral and religious -- with bits of laughing humor, smiling fancy and tender sentiment -- everywhere / the earnest heart-throbs of William D. Upshaw, during this more than sixteen years of invalid life -- (seven years spent on a bed).
- Upshaw, Willie D. (William David), 1866-1952.
- Date:
- 1903
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: "Earnest Willie," or, Echoes from a recluse : containing the letters, poems, addresses and sketches -- chiefly moral and religious -- with bits of laughing humor, smiling fancy and tender sentiment -- everywhere / the earnest heart-throbs of William D. Upshaw, during this more than sixteen years of invalid life -- (seven years spent on a bed). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![Shut in for years where fate has placed me, God and the world have been so good, Shedding all thro' my life a gladness, By none, save me, quite understood, I'd echo back, in ringing clearness, All God has given me for his use; In anxions prayer, I humbly give forth These heart-EcnoES from a eecluse. HOPE, A BLESSED BALM. [Note.—Composed a few months after I went to bed when I was not able to write, and could hardly feed myself. Written as I dictated, by my sister.] There is a word I can't explain, It thrills me o'er and o'er, And were it not for its effect My bliss would be no more. Its inspiration I long have felt. Of it I've often thought; Its prospects I have oft divulged. And this sweet word is ^'Hope. Its very sound seems to impart Its meaning—oh, how great! Yet to explain would useless be • Could we not of it partake. - How dull would be this life of ours When adverse clouds do come ; To know that they would last always— No sunshine ever dawn ! How sore when tossed on life's rough sea By billows fierce and wild. To have no hope for a better time—](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21167035_0042.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)