NOT FAILURE by Louise Houghton

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 23, 1896

NOT FAILURE.

By Louise Houghton

As some great bird, Whose hurt wing answers not her will, Still beats the air in useless striving, And, dying—with strong talons holding yet Her hard-worn prey, While with wide, hungry beaks, her far-off young Wait, vainly calling—

Or a spent swimmer Breasting angry waves to save a life, With dying eyes fixt on the rescuing boat, And knowing it is all too late, Makes still his strokes, grown feebler With each laboring breath—yields not The life he gives his own to save;

This is not failure: Nor bird, nor swimmer gives up purpose.

Long, long centuries Agone, One walked the earth, his life A seeming failure; Dying, he gave the world a gift That will outlast eternities. —Louise Houghton.