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Impertinent Poems

DON'T TAKE YOUR TROUBLES TO BED.

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You may labor your fill, friend of mine, if you will; You may worry a bit, if you must; You may treat your affairs as a series of cares, You may live on a scrap and a crust; But when the day's done, put it out of your head; Don't take your troubles to bed. You may batter your way through the thick of the fray, You may sweat, you may swear, you may grunt; You may be a jack-fool if you must, but this rule Should ever be kept at the front:— Don't fight with your pillow, but lay down your head And kick every worriment out of the bed. That friend or that foe (which he is, I don't know), Whose name we have spoken as Death, Hovers close to your side, while you run or you ride, And he envies the warmth of your breath; But he turns him away, with a shake of his head, When he finds that you don't take your troubles to bed.

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