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Jewett's Poems
PERSEVERANCE.
Sarah Orne Jewett.
Dear Polly, these are joyful days!
Your feet can choose their own sweet ways;
You have no care of anything.
Free as a swallow on the wing,
You hunt the hay-field over
To find a four-leaved clover.But this I tell you, Polly dear,
One thing in life you need not fear:
Bad luck, I'm certain, never haunts
A child who works for what she wants,
And hunts a hay-field over
To find a four-leaved clover!The little leaf is not so wise
As it may seem in foolish eyes;
But then, dear Polly, don't you see,
Since you were willing carefully
To hunt the hay-field over,
You found your four-leaved clover!Your patience may have long to wait,
Whether in little things or great,
But all good luck, you soon will learn,
Must come to those who nobly earn.
Who hunts the hay-field over
Will find the four-leaved clover.
Note
"Perseverance" appeared in St. Nicholas Magazine (10:840-841) in September 1883, with an illustration by Rose Mueller. Rose Mueller Sprague (1862-1924) was an author and illustrator. Her illustrated story, "A Singular Performance" appears in Cat Stories: Retold from St. Nicholas, edited by M. H. Carter (New York: Century, 1904), pp. 80-90. The illustration appears below. The poem was revised and collected in Verses (1916) under the title "A Four-leaved Clover."
Four-leaf Clovers
Rose Mueller
Edited and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College
