I 've a humble little motto That is homely, though it 's true,-- Keep a-pluggin' away. It's a thing when I 've an object That I always try to do,-- Keep a-pluggin' away. When you 've rising storms to quell, When opposing waters swell, It will never fail to tell,-- Keep a-pluggin' away.
If the hills are high before And the paths are hard to climb, Keep a-pluggin' away. And remember that successes Come to him who bides his time,-- Keep a-pluggin' away. From the greatest to the least, None are from the rule released. Be thou toiler, poet, priest, Keep a-pluggin' away.
Delve away beneath the surface, There is treasure farther down,-- Keep a-pluggin' away. Let the rain come down in torrents, Let the threat'ning heavens frown, Keep a-pluggin' away. When the clouds have rolled away, There will come a brighter day All your labor to repay,-- Keep a-pluggin' away.
There 'll be lots of sneers to swallow, There 'll be lots of pain to bear,-- Keep a-pluggin' away. If you 've got your eye on heaven, Some bright day you 'll wake up there,-- Keep a-pluggin' away. Perseverance still is king; Time its sure reward will bring; Work and wait unwearying,-- Keep a-pluggin' away.
The moon has left the sky, love, The stars are hiding now, And frowning on the world, love, Night bares her sable brow. The snow is on the ground, love, And cold and keen the air is. I 'm singing here to you, love; You 're dreaming there in Paris.
But this is Nature's law, love, Though just it may not seem, That men should wake to sing, love, While maidens sleep and dream. Them care may not molest, love, Nor stir them from their slumbers, Though midnight find the swain, love, Still halting o'er his numbers.
I watch the rosy dawn, love, Come stealing up the east, While all things round rejoice, love, That Night her reign has ceased. The lark will soon be heard, love, And on his way be winging; When Nature's poets wake, love, Why should a man be singing?
Four hundred years ago a tangled waste Lay sleeping on the west Atlantic's side; Their devious ways the Old World's millions traced Content, and loved, and labored, dared and died, While students still believed the charts they conned, And revelled in their thriftless ignorance, Nor dreamed of other lands that lay beyond Old Ocean's dense, indefinite expanse.