Saturday Poetry Corner: A Life-Lesson

 

"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you
to Myself, so that where I am you may be also."
(John 14:3)

From left to right the five children of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Empress Alexandria:
Grand Duchess Olga; Tsarvitch Alexei (sitting on Olga's lap); Grand Duchess Tatiana;
Grand Duchess Marie; and Grand Duchess Anastasia.   Only twelve years after this
photograph was taken, the children and their parents would be brutally
murdered while being held in captivity by the *Bolsheviks.

There! little girl; don't cry!

They have broken your doll, I know;

And your tea-set blue,

And your play-house, too,

Are things of the long ago;

But childish troubles will soon pass by.--

There! little girl; don't cry!

There! little girl; don't cry!

They have broken your slate, I know;

And the glad, wild ways

Of your schoolgirl days

Are things of long ago;

But life and love will soon come by.--

There! little girl; don't cry!

There! little girl; don't cry!

They have broken your heart I know;

And the rainbow gleams

of your youthful dreams

Are things of long ago;

But Heaven holds all for which you sigh,--

There! little girl; don't cry!

"A Life-Lesson"
(1870)
James Whitcomb Riley
(1849-1916)
American poet
Often called "The Children's Poet"

*The Bolsheviks were a far-left faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democrat
Labor Party led by Vladimir Lenin which seized power in Russia after the
October Revolution in 1917.   Although the details surrounding the murders of His
  Imperial Highness Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Her Imperial Highness Empress Alexandria
and their five children remained sketchy for many years, giving rise to much speculation
  that one or more of the children had escaped after being rescued, news of the Royal
   Family's execution overshadowed the political victories of Vladimir Lenin
 and his fellow revolutionaries.  Many Russians were grief-stricken over
 the murders, and in particular, those of the children.  

Communism has no compassion or mercy.

Communism is not about "equality for the masses".  In the last century
alone, Communism murdered millions of people and enslaved millions of
others like no other time in history.  And yet, in 21st century America today
there are generations of young people demanding that our Constitutional
Republic and the freedom which comes with it, be taken out and replaced
with the false "equality" of Communism.   What these young people fail to
realize is that had it not been for the generations of free Americans which
came before them, they would have no right to their ignorant demands
and pathetic protests in the first place!