Margaret Sangster

I’m enjoying the decision to borrow a few moments from our biographical sketch in order to showcase some of the best poems, fables, and morals stories from years gone by. I hope they’re inspiring to you, also. Today’s thoughts come from the late Margaret E. Sangster, born Margaret Munson on February 22, 1838. She was a talented wordsmith who initially gave up her dreams of a writing career to marry her sweetheart, George Sangster. Thirteen years later, George died and Margaret returned to her craft, becoming a respected editor and well-known fiction writer and poet. May these famous words of Margaret Sangster give us pause as we go about our days.

“The Sin of Omission”

It isn’t the thing you do, dear;
It’s the thing you leave undone,
That gives you a bit of heartache
At setting of the sun.
The tender word forgotten,
The letter you did not write,
The flowers you did not send, dear,
Are your haunting ghosts to-night.

The stone you might have lifted
Out of a brother’s way,
The bit of heartsome counsel
You were hurried too much to say;
The loving touch of the hand, dear,
The gentle and winsome tone,
Which you had no time nor thought for,
With troubles enough of your own.

Those little acts of kindness,
So easily out of mind;
Those chances to be angels
Which every one may find —
They come in night and silence —
Each chill, reproachful wraith —
When hope is faint and flagging
And a blight has dropped on faith.

For life is all too short, dear,
And sorrow is all too great;
To suffer our slow compassion
That tarries until too late;
And it’s not the thing you do, dear,
It’s the thing you leave undone,
Which gives you a bit of heartache
At the setting of the sun.