Selected American and British Poems
by FCIT
“If I Were a Sunbeam”
by Lucy Larcom
Additional Information
- Year Published: 0
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: United States of America
- Source: Walter Barnes, ed., Types of Children’s Literature: A Collection of the World’s Best Literature for Children, For Use in Colleges, Normal Schools and Library Schools
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Readability:
- Flesch–Kincaid Level: 1.2
- Word Count: 143
- Genre: Poetry
- Keywords: fantasy
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“If I were a sunbeam,
I know what I’d do;
I would seek white lilies,
Rainy woodlands through.
I would steal among them,
Softest light I’d shed,
Until every lily
Raised its drooping head.
“If I were a sunbeam,
I know where I’d go;
Into lowliest hovels,
Dark with want and woe:
Till sad hearts looked upward,
I would shine and shine;
Then they’d think of heaven,
Their sweet home and mine.”
Art thou not a sunbeam,
Child, whose life is glad
With an inner radiance
Sunshine never had?
O, as God hath blessed thee,
Scatter rays divine!
For there is no sunbeam
But must die or shine.