Advice to my son

by Lee O'Hara

God gave to bees their honey
God gave birds the sky
God gave to you, my sonny,
God gave to you your eye.

Glean all the world has in it
Walk at your whimsies ease,
Roam o'er the world and win it,
Its soul, its sympathies.

When you have filled the measure
You heard and tasted too,
And touched the golden treasure,
Mark what you want to do.

And when you bring a beacon
To dot a distant shore,
You've lived and learned the reason
Of gifts you got before.

For when the measure's shaken,
And spilled to common view,
'Tis not what you have taken
But what you gave is true

Their were four sons in our family. I am the eldest.
I like to think, nevertheless, that Dad had me in mind.

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